New Methods in Political Science to Support Indigenous Youth Voices

• In Event: Political Science Education as Participatory Research & Civic Empowerment

Abstract

How can we support young citizens facing chaotic climate futures? This is an urgent question particularly for Indigenous communities who face disproportionate risks and impacts of climate change. For the past three decades, climate related education and more recently, citizen education has focused largely on individual agency and behaviour change. This approach centres the ‘problem’ rather than human capabilities to collectively act in solidarity, which is particularly misaligned with the increasing practice and significance of Indigenous communities regenerating self-determining capabilities. This paper reports on a pilot-study that uses intergenerational story-telling methods or pūrākau to support the leadership capability of Indigenous Māori and Pacific young people aged 10 to 14 years in communities at high risk of flooding in Ōtuatahi/Christchurch, Aotearoa/New Zealand. The study illustrates how strengths-based Indigenous story telling methods which attend to tā (or time) and vā (or space and relationships) can help scaffold Indigenous young people’s confidence and skills for collective action when addressing complex problems’ such as climate change and the ongoing impacts of colonisation, within a broader intergenerational journey of resilience and reclamation.

Authors

• Bronwyn M. Hayward, University of Canterbury

• Steve Ratuva, University of Auckland

• Kate Prendergast, University of Canterbury