In attempts to critique linear notions of time, indigenous scholars will often provide the following retort: indigenous time is ‘cyclical’.
Recently Maori astronomer, Rangi Mataamua (2021) argued that Maori markers of time recognised the cyclical nature of celestial objects and seasonal patterns, by default arguing that time for Maori was cyclical.
For the existentialist, such a view raises questions about life and what living means: the implication of life lived as cyclical is to effectively claim life is like being on a hamster wheel.
Such explanations are clearly insufficient, if not completely misleading. In this paper I will interrogate a series of Maori terms and ideas to suggest what I think are more plausible theories of time in Maori thought.
Join GCLS Friday 14 May, 3:30pm in Elsie Locke, Room 611.
Garrick is a Senior Lecturer at Aotahi School of Māori and Indigenous Studies, at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Aotearoa.
My research addresses decoloniality, though not always in a direct way. Sometimes it is just as powerful to engage in quotidian decolonial acts where we cease arguing the legitimacy of what we bring to the table but assume its legitimacy.
My work is inspired by Polynesian traditions/philosophy and black decolonial philosophy, particularly the work of Frantz Fanon.
