Note: This entry is an edited version of today’s entry in my Personal Reconciliation Journal.)

When I was in New Zealand recently, I met Tom Johnson and Dr. Tanya Allport from Whakauae, the only iwi-owned Māori health research centre in Aotearoa.  They introduced me to Rachel Knight, a Māori (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) and Pākehā design researcher, facilitator and strategist. I was introduced to Chastity Davis-Alphonse at my favorite retreat in Victoria and she has introduced me to Dr. Lorna Williams who pointed me to the Lil’wat Learning Principles Guide and who I will speak with later this week.

It feels like my quest to figure out how to include an Indigenous Frameworks mini-collection into this collection has just gone through a phase transition.  For years I have been reaching out from my colonial paradigm to try to get other academics to talk with me.  Now through a relational approach, conversations have started to happen and I am beginning to see some pathways to building this mini-collection.  

A key question is about the images and how they can be presented in a respectful way.  Initially I figured I was looking for framework images that already exist and I would not put them on my website, rather just point to them. These recent conversations made me realize we might be able to represent some of these images on the website with the permission of the designers and artists who created them. Then I learned Tom did this work for Te Ruru and when he and Tanya talked about the fluid nature of the images, I started to wonder about collaborating on versions of the framework with Sam?  Definitely something worth thinking and talking about more.

I’ve also started to wonder about the creation of new images where none might exist as I sense might be the case for the Lil’wat Principles.  Would these need to be done in collaboration with or by an Indigenous artist?  Would the artist need to be from the community that has given rise to the framework?  Also, through these conversations I am coming to understand there are many different Indigenous knowledge frameworks that arise from many different nations and communities.

There is much to think about here. With gratitude to those who have taken time to speak with me, I see this work is giving me an opportunity to practice some of the Lil’wat Principles, especially A7xekcal and Cwelelep.