Takarangi: Developing a framework for a large program of research towards decolonisation and racial justice

Abstract

Large, multi-year research programs have the potential to yield transformative and impactful research outcomes, particularly for research programs working towards emancipatory and decolonial aims. In large, multi-year projects, there is a need for epistemological, ontological and axiological consistencies across the projects involved. However, few studies have been conducted to guide researchers working in such programs through the critical, ethical and reflexive processes needed to achieve theoretical coherence. Drawing from the works of Indigenous scholars and literature on anti-oppressive research approaches within the fields of anti-racism and decolonisation, this paper outlines how WERO (Working to End Racial Oppression), a multi-year research program based in Aotearoa New Zealand, developed the Takarangi research framework to address this large knowledge gap. The framework is based on the Takarangi, an ancient double spiral pattern prominent in Māori carving that circles inwards and outwards, visually capturing how multiple and interrelated elements are at play in the production of knowledge. The Takarangi aids researchers within teams to reflexively consider how their social positioning, ontology, axiology, ethics, epistemology and research goals shape all aspects of their research process, from community engagement to transformative action. While the Takarangi framework was built within and for a particular context of knowledge production, in detailing the processes involved in its development and implementation, this paper aimed to enable researchers working with Indigenous, racialised and minoritised communities to flexibly interpret, build upon and implement the Takarangi model to support their own projects, institutes and programs of research.