The power of cross-cultural collaboration
New Zealand is a country with a unique relationship with its indigenous people through the Treaty of Waitangi, a relationship built on a foundation of partnership. The resulting biculturalism model is being implemented at Otago Polytechnic, incorporating iwi-specific Māori knowledge and customs into our learning environment.
Ron Bull's research explores issues of identity at the intersection of different cultures, and at the intersection of the extraordinary or explicit with the mundane or implicit. With international consultant Carolyn Levy he found that it was more effective to take explicit and obvious approaches to incorporating knowledge and customs alongside a more subtle implicit approach. The explicit approach provides signposts to knowledge and customs, whereas the implicit approach embedded these elements, allowing for 'under the radar' transmission and normalisation of knowledge.
This work has been of interest to an international audience as an example of how first nations peoples can understand themselves and conceive of ways they can evolve and change that deconstruct and re-organise the cultural field. As a result Otago Polytechnic has been able to build collaborative relationships with international institutions grappling with similar issues. Cross-cultural partnerships provide an opportunity to learn from one another.