ISTR Sixth International Conference Toronto, Canada / July 11-14, 2004 Contesting Citizenship and Civil Society in a Divided World

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	Abstracts

Co-Citizenship: Sailing on Disturbed Waters
by
Maria Humphries
Waikato Management School, University of Waikato
Coauthors: Dr Betsan Martin

The call for papers asks us to consider what “the contestation of identities and the concept of citizenship mean for indigenous peoples, migrants and refugees in an unsettled and fast changing global configuration”. We are working in association with an indigenous group who are protecting waterways by caring for adjacent land through replanting and growing crops for sustainable development. The clarity of vision regarding their identity and mandate to steward the future raises questions for us as non-indigenous people about our sense of identity and citizenship in relation to their aspirations. . Our participation in this project involves building relationality in research and practice.

We are interested in how researchers who are not members of these groups, can make space for modalities of citizenship reflect their assertions. Our discussion here comes primarily from our work with Maori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa/New Zealand but we have experience of this issue in a number of other contexts. The work that we present here has application where there are diverse claims, and often hidden interests in ‘defining’ what identities will be acknowledged and how citizenship and its associated rights and responsibilities will be defined.

Maori status as sovereign was established in 1835 and is embedded in The Treaty of Waitangi of 1940 between Chiefs of Maori Hapu (sovereign groups) .Examples of Maori resistance to colonization and creative assertion of their identities as sovereign (for some) or (for others) as partners with the Crown in the governance of this land abound. The current contest over ownership and control of the country’s seabed and foreshore provide non-Maori with yet another opportunity to be involved in reshaping citizenship and governance to accord with the requirements of indigenous people. The ongoing colonizing activities of the Crown in defining rights and responsibilities based on its own view of citizenship is galvanizing an oppositional and assertive Maori identity that is clear and certain. (Jackson 2003 – Public Address, Wellington 22 Sept).

In our presentation we work with a metaphor of a 'two-hulled waka' - a craft for a great migration which symbolizes an era of inter-cultural ethics. The model has been shared with us by indigenous people with whom we are in research collaboration (Martin, Humphries, Te Rangiita 2002). It is given to facilitate the transition required to embrace diversity – in its many forms, to facilitate reciprocity and shared purpose, the underpinning attributes of co-citizenship and co-management.

As non-Maori researchers and teachers working in this country, we have been engaged for over 20 years in understanding what kind of citizenship we can create for ourselves living here, alongside Maori. We seek to engender relationships that do not prematurely suggest that we, as academics associated predominantly with the institutions of settler society, can determine the shape of dialogues on citizenship and governance (Humphries et al 2002a, 2002b; Humphries et al 2000).

In support of our collaboration with Maori, and our research on re-shaped citizenship for ‘westerners’, we have drawn upon texts on ethics and difference in western traditions such as those of Luce Irigaray and Emmanuel Levinas, based on reconceptualising relations to the Other (Martin 2000). Moving on from the prevailing individualism and competitiveness which have been emphasized in an increasingly commercial environment, we turn our attention towards enterprise that needs both individual and collective initiative and attention to citizenship for social cohesion. conditions that support ‘relationality’ engender creativity and revitalization in the natural world and in social, cultural, economic life.

The challenge is to create structures and systems and build attitudes which respect difference, and which also safeguard solidarity, shared purposes and collective/common good. In this framework, cultural values are to be upheld, not assimilated. It is part of an overall goal of increasing participation of marginalized groups in civil society, which in international measures of development, based on, provides an index of development.

Citizenship that accommodates the requirements of indigenous communities along with those that come with western concepts of citizenship requires us to forge new forms of management and governance. In New Zealand different appreciation for the foreshore and seabed by Maori and later settlers and government are requiring us to engage with frameworks in which all parties become fully represented. Co-management is being explored as a model for shared decision-making and responsibility for the foreshore and seabed, an issue which represents many enduring unresolved matters which divide Maori and later setters and government. The two-hulled waka is a vehicle which makes it possible to ride this divisive, threatening wave.

References Humphries, M.T. and Grice, S. (1995). Equal opportunity and the management of diversity: a global discourse of assimilation. Journal of Organisation Change Management. Vol.8, No.5, 17-33 Humphries, M., Martin, B., Bang, B. and Mohi, G. (2002a). Working with Difference – Resisting Premature Conjugality Fifth International Society for Third Sector Research, Cape Town, July 7-10.

Humphries, M.and Gregg, N. (2002b). Challenging Globalisation through University and Community Dialogues. International Society for Third Sector Research, Cape Town, July 7-10.

Humphries, M. and Gregg, N. (2000) Community-University Partnerships: Mutuality, Opportunities and Risks. International Society for Third Sector Research, Dublin. July 5-8 Martin, B. (2000) ‘An Ethics of Cultural Difference and Location’ in Educational Philosophy and Theory. Vol 32. No1 .

Key words. Relationality, ethics, ‘difference’, double-hulled waka, indigenous peoples, indigenous initiatives, later settlers, creative action, shared endeavour, environmental development, sustainable development, social cohesion, research/government/ community partnerships.

Authors Dr B. Martin Dr M.T. Humphries Biographical notes Dr Betsan Martin and Associate Professor Maria Humphries, are ‘pakeha’ or ‘later-comers’ to Aotearoa-New Zealand. They teach and are involved in research in academic and community contexts in areas of management, education and relationship building through respect for ‘difference’. Both researchers have taught in areas of cultural diversity and indigenous issues in Aotearoa.

Associate Professor M.T.Humphries Waikato Management School University of Waikato P.O.Box 3105 Hamilton, New Zealand Ph: 0064 7 838 4432 Fax 0065 7 838 4270

Date received: September 27, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # camk-38.