95bFM The concept of ‘trans-indigeneity’ as critical for Indigenous empowerment
12 August, 2025
Interview by Sanat Singh, adapted by Sara Mckoy
As the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education (WIPCE) makes its way to Tāmaki Makaurau in November 2025, Tumuaki at Te Wānanga o Raukawa, Meihana Durie, explains how the hui aims to uplift Indigenous education. Image: Entrance to Ngā Wai o Horotiu Marae - AUT's Marae (2011) - Wikimedia Commons
Since its inception in Vancouver, Canada in 1987, the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education, or WIPCE, has gathered Indigenous leaders and knowledge keepers from around the world every three years to ‘honour, preserve and advance Indigenous education’.
In 2025, the conference will be held in Aotearoa, hosted by the Auckland University of Technology — Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau, and will bring together thousands of Indigenous participants from more than twenty nations.
Tumuaki at Te Wānanga o Raukawa, Meihana Durie, told 95bFM’s The Wire that the event is an important opportunity for Indigenous thinkers and scholars to determine future outcomes for Indigenous peoples, especially given what he observes as a “significant shift in the level of risk” faced by Indigenous populations across the globe.
“I think it would be remiss of us not to address the current geopolitical climate…
“There is a complete lack of recognition of Indigenous ways of thinking, doing, being, and existing in certain parts of the world that has now become more pronounced with what I would describe as the emergence of a commercialised authoritarianist approach to politics.”
As Indigenous people grapple with the endangerment of the official status of indigeneity, he says Indigenous education is “absolutely critical”.
He uses the achievements in education by tangata Māori in Aotearoa as an example.
“Te reo Māori, tikanga Māori, and kaupapa Māori are absolutely to the forefront of our educational movements.
“Probably the most significant advancements in Indigenous education here in Aotearoa have been the emergence of the Kohanga Reo movement… followed by Kura Kaupapa Māori. [and] the reaffirmation of the Whare Wānanga movement.”
This year at the WIPCE, he says that the emerging notion of trans-indigeneity will sit “at the heart” of kōrerorero.
“[Trans-indigineity is] about us working collectively as Indigenous nations across the world to build our own systems so that we are not so reliant on what I would call sort of mainstream westernised geopolitical systems.”
He hopes that the event will harness the potential of Indigenous peoples to progress education around indigeneity which aligns with cultural values and centres Indigenous language and culture.
“I think we are all, as Indigenous peoples, experiencing some similar types of challenges, but we also know that as Indigenous peoples, we have significant innovation, power and creativity, which have enabled us to endure, to flourish and to thrive.”
