Nice Assets

I’ve been meaning to update this post for a while, so thanks to the lame dude who trolled me, I finally motivated myself to do it!

Back in February I ran a giveaway on my Instagram page for Waitangi Day in which I asked people to suggest resources for decolonisation. I intentionally left ‘resources’ very broad – asking for people to suggest whatever they found useful. So below I have roughly collated the suggestions (anonymised!), including my own.

Putting together this list brought to mind this whakatauki which I thought was appropriate:

Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi

With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive

Thanks to everybody who contributed! And congratulations to the winner!

My original suggestions:

• First of all I recommend looking at the Harvard University Implicit Bias tests. The race test in particular can be quite revealing, but I encourage everyone to explore as many tests as they can.
• Between the world and me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the most powerful works I have ever read about privilege.
• Invisible man by Ralph Ellison is another power piece of literature exploring privilege and society.
• I recommend Waking up white by Debbie Irving but with caveats – the auther sometimes doesn’t seem to be aware of her own privilege, even though the whole book is about becoming aware of that privilege, and the book is pretty cringe-worthily-self-indulgent at times, there are some useful discussion questions included in each chapter I think do make really good reflective exercises.
• E-tanagta is a great resource, full of excellent articles
• BWB is similarly just full of great things to explore, including an excellent collection of For those of us in NZ, you should have access to the online fulltext collection of BWB from your local public library through the EPIC database. Check your local library’s website for details!
• Te Wananga o Aotearoa and their amazing courses & kaupapa.

Suggestions from the community:

• Scotty Morrison – Maori Made Easy
• defos tiktok videos from all over the world and then the small maori creators on Instagram!
• Studying Te Reo!
• Consumed by Aja Barber
• My favourite decolonisation resource isn’t so much a resource as it is connecting with community – finding a community of other amazing wahine Māori and people of colour has been so life changing for me
• the amazing TikTok videos that are helping educate the next generation to be better and question this shit
• Paintings by Robyn Kahukiwa
• the coloniser and the colonised by Albert Memmi as well
• Don’t touch my hair by Emma Dabiri (this one was mentined at least 10 times!)
• “Decolonising Methodologies” by Linda Tuhiwai Smith
• Kruke, Anja (ed.), Dekolonisation: Verflechtungen und Prozesse, 1945-1990, Bonn: Dietz, 2009
• Kia Mau: Resisting Colonial Fictions, by Tina Ngata.
• @pori.mahmah and @nope.thank.u.very.much have taught me heeaaaps
• Braiding Sweetgrass- Robin Wall Kimmerer
• This Pakeha life, an unsettled memoir – Alison Jones
• Te Tiriti O Waitangi / The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris, Ross Calman and Mark Derby. Great for all ages!
• Niho Taniwha: Improving Teaching and Learning for Ākonga Māori
• ‘Imagining Decolonisation‘ is a great coming together of experiences and perspectives
• @maori_party
• Ani Mikaere’s book “Colonising Myths- Māori Realities”
• White fragility
• @amythunig is a constant inspiration
• Nice to see confronting student questions that didn’t pull punches https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/outreach/colonialhangover/
• don’t touch my hair by sharee millar
• Jerningham – Cristina Sanders 

Ngā mihi

As a person with very mixed white and Jewish European heritage, born in American to 2nd generation immigrants, now living in New Zealand Aotearoa, I am only partway through my decolonisation journey. It’s a work in progress and I am learning more everyday. Thank you to everyone who has helped educate me along the way. In particular the friends I made while living in places like Benin, Laos, St. Lucia, and here in Aotearoa. I love you all!