decolonialization
Definition
Decolonialization refers to the active process of addressing and reversing the structural, cultural, and epistemic consequences of colonization as they bear on Indigenous Peoples and the sciences that study them. In acculturation science, this means confronting the field's historical neglect of Native, Aboriginal, and First Nations communities, whose intercultural contact experiences have been shaped by involuntary dispossession, forced assimilation, and the theft of lands and natural resources rather than by voluntary migration. Extending acculturation research to include Māori perspectives requires situating multiculturalism within the historical context of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and recognizing that Indigenous communities cannot be treated as just another ethnic minority group without erasing the political distinctiveness that colonial history created. Indigenizing acculturation science therefore demands that Western theoretical frameworks be brought together with Indigenous knowledge systems, so that constructs like integration and multiculturalism are tested against, and reshaped by, the lived realities of Indigenous Peoples.
Sources: Ward et al. (2025)
Related Terms
- acculturation (1 shared article)
- multiculturalism (1 shared article)
- Indigenous (1 shared article)
- Māori (1 shared article)
- Braided Rivers (1 shared article)
Applications
Decolonialization and Acculturation Science
Acculturation science has developed largely through research with immigrants and international students, leaving Indigenous Peoples substantially absent from its theoretical frameworks and empirical base. This absence is itself a product of colonial epistemology, and correcting it requires indigenizing the field by combining Western and Indigenous research perspectives through approaches that pair inductive and deductive methods with Māori and non-Māori researchers. Without this reorientation, acculturation theory cannot adequately account for the conditions of involuntary intercultural contact that define Indigenous experience in post-colonial settler societies.
Sources: Ward et al. (2025)
Decolonialization and Multiculturalism
From a Māori standpoint, multiculturalism carries a specific decolonial risk: policies that position Indigenous Peoples as one ethnic minority among many can effectively erase the bicultural partnership established by Te Tiriti o Waitangi and subordinate Indigenous priorities to broader diversity agendas. Māori support for multicultural arrangements is therefore conditional on those arrangements not overriding Treaty-based rights and on grounding social relations in values such as Manaakitanga. Decolonialization in this context means insisting that multiculturalism serve Indigenous self-determination rather than absorb indigeneity into a generalized minority framework.
Sources: Ward et al. (2025)
