NZPF Keynote: Dr Hana O'Regan

The opening keynote speaker for the NZPF conference was Dr Hana O'Regan.  Hana's address was incredibly provocative and confronting.  I learned a new word today - coloniality - "the set of attitudes, values, ways of knowing, and power structures upheld as normative by Western colonising societies and serving to rationalise and perpetuate Western dominance".

Hana spoke of the coloniality of power (hierarchical classification of diverse groups by race to justify their exploitation), coloniality of knowledge (legitimation of Eurocentric knowledge as the only valid one and the negation of other knowledge systems), and coloniality of being (Inferiorisation of oppressed groups, prejudices, discrimination and violence because of ethnic or gender, or other origins). She put the idea of coloniality not just within an Aotearoa perspective but made references to other Indigenous cultures that have been impacted by colonisation including those in Western countries and the destruction of other Indigenous languages in Wales, Ireland, America, and Canada.

During this keynote, we were taken on a journey of colonialism in education that I just hadn't fully understood.  We looked at bias and stereotyping in education created long ago, drilling into the foundation of our education system, its intentions at the time, and whether equity was a consideration in its establishment.  We were then shown the systematic attempt to disestablish languages and cultures through legislation, rules, degradation, and humiliation.

This was a brilliant opening speaker for this conference because it was attended by Principals from both New Zealand and Australia, for which equity plays such an important role in our positions.  I hope that all participants were challenged by the messages in this session, and questioned their position and where they sit in understanding racism, colonisation, and generational trauma.  I left the room at the end feeling confronted, reflecting on how my schema has positioned me.  What have I done that supports coloniality?  How do we, as principals, reduce coloniality in our communities when the system we work in is grounded in colonialism?  

There is work to be done.