---
title: "Linda Tuhiwai Smith | Native American Studies"
description: "Linda Tuhiwai Smith is a Māori scholar whose work on decolonizing research centers Indigenous self-representation, ethics, and Indigenous Research."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/hs-native-american-studies/key-terms/linda-tuhiwai-smith"
type: "key-term"
subject: "Native American Studies"
unit: "Unit 12"
---

# Linda Tuhiwai Smith | Native American Studies

## Definition

Linda Tuhiwai Smith is a Māori scholar best known for arguing that research about Indigenous peoples should be shaped by Indigenous people themselves. In Native American Studies, her work supports decolonization and self-representation.

## What It Is

Linda Tuhiwai Smith is an Indigenous scholar whose work shows up in Native American Studies as a way to think about research, storytelling, and self-representation differently. She is best known for Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, a book that critiques how Western research has often treated Indigenous communities as objects to study instead of people with their own knowledge systems.

In this course, her name usually points to a bigger idea than just one author. It stands for a research approach that asks who gets to ask the questions, who controls the evidence, and who benefits from the answers. Smith argues that research is never neutral when it comes from colonial systems, because those systems have often extracted knowledge from Native communities without consent, context, or reciprocity.

A major part of her work is self-determination in knowledge production. That means Native and Indigenous people should not only be the subjects of study, but also the researchers, narrators, and decision-makers. This is why her scholarship fits with Native American Studies discussions of sovereignty, representation, and the right of communities to define themselves.

Smith also values storytelling as a serious way of knowing, not just a casual or decorative form. In Indigenous traditions, stories can carry history, ethics, identity, and community memory. That makes oral tradition, testimony, and community-based narratives legitimate sources of knowledge, especially when a class is analyzing how Native communities preserve culture and explain their own experiences.

Her ideas often challenge the normal rules of academic research. Instead of treating objectivity as automatic virtue, she asks you to notice power, colonial history, and unequal access to institutions. In practice, that means asking whether a project extracts information or builds relationships, whether it reproduces stereotypes or supports Indigenous agency, and whether it respects tribal communities as knowledge holders.

## Why It Matters

Linda Tuhiwai Smith matters in Native American Studies because she gives you a framework for reading research, history, and representation with more care. A lot of the course is not just about what happened to Native peoples, but about who told the story, whose version became official, and what got left out when outsiders controlled the narrative.

Her work connects directly to decolonization, especially in classrooms that discuss museums, archives, schools, anthropology, or public policy. If a reading describes Native people through a colonial lens, Smith gives you language for explaining why that framing is limited or harmful. If a text uses Native testimony, community history, or oral tradition, her ideas help you see why those sources matter and why they should not be treated as secondary to Western academic methods.

She is also useful for analyzing modern Native scholarship. When a Native author writes from inside the community rather than speaking about the community from the outside, that choice is part of the argument. Smith helps you name that move as self-representation, not just style.

In short, her scholarship gives the course a method for evaluating knowledge itself. You are not only asking what a source says, but who is speaking, what power they have, and whether the research respects Indigenous sovereignty.

## Connections

### Decolonization

Smith’s work is one of the clearest calls for decolonization in research. She shows that colonial power does not just shape land and government, it also shapes archives, classrooms, and the way knowledge gets ranked as valid. When you connect her to decolonization, you are looking at how Indigenous communities challenge those structures and reclaim authority over their own histories.

### Indigenous Research

This is the practical side of Smith’s ideas. Indigenous Research means communities are not just being studied from the outside, they are shaping the questions, methods, and purposes of the research. Smith pushes you to see research as relationship-based, accountable, and grounded in Indigenous values instead of extraction.

### Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Smith’s thinking overlaps with teaching practices that respect Indigenous knowledge and lived experience. Culturally Relevant Pedagogy asks educators to make learning meaningful to students’ communities, identities, and histories. In Native American Studies, that means not centering only mainstream academic sources, but also valuing oral tradition, community knowledge, and Native perspectives.

### [Indigenous Academics](/hs-native-american-studies/key-terms/indigenous-academics)

Smith is part of a larger movement of Indigenous scholars who are reshaping universities from the inside. Her work helps explain why Native academics often push for tribally grounded research, ethical partnerships, and better representation in the curriculum. She is a good example of scholarship that is also activism in how it changes knowledge production.

## On the AP Exam

A quiz question or short essay may ask you to identify why Linda Tuhiwai Smith matters in a passage about Indigenous research. You would explain that she critiques colonial research methods and supports Indigenous self-representation, not just Native people as research subjects. If a prompt gives you a museum exhibit, oral history project, or community-based study, you can use her ideas to judge whether the work is extractive or collaborative. In class discussion, she often comes up when you compare Western academic authority with Indigenous ways of knowing, especially storytelling and community memory.

## Linda Tuhiwai Smith vs Decolonization

Decolonization is the broader process or goal, while Linda Tuhiwai Smith is a scholar whose work explains how decolonization should shape research and knowledge production. You might use Smith to analyze decolonization, but she is not the same thing as the term itself.

## Key Takeaways

- Linda Tuhiwai Smith is a Māori scholar whose work centers Indigenous control over knowledge, research, and representation.
- In Native American Studies, her name usually points to decolonizing research methods and the rejection of colonial ways of studying Indigenous peoples.
- Her book Decolonizing Methodologies is often used to show why storytelling, oral history, and community-based knowledge count as real evidence.
- Smith helps you ask who is speaking, who has power, and whether a research project supports Indigenous self-determination.
- Her ideas connect directly to Native self-representation in academia, literature, media, and public history.

## FAQs

### What is Linda Tuhiwai Smith in Native American Studies?

Linda Tuhiwai Smith is a Māori scholar whose work critiques colonial research and supports Indigenous self-representation. In Native American Studies, she is used to explain why Native communities should shape the research done about them and how their knowledge should be valued.

### What is Decolonizing Methodologies about?

Decolonizing Methodologies argues that research has often served colonial power by treating Indigenous peoples as objects to study. Smith calls for methods that are accountable to Indigenous communities, respect oral tradition, and center Indigenous priorities.

### How is Linda Tuhiwai Smith different from decolonization?

Decolonization is the broader idea of undoing colonial control, while Smith is a scholar who explains what that looks like in research and knowledge production. Her work gives you a framework for applying decolonization to archives, interviews, writing, and classroom analysis.

### Why does storytelling matter in Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s work?

Smith treats storytelling as a serious form of knowledge because it reflects Indigenous oral traditions and community memory. In Native American Studies, that means stories are not just illustrations for a claim, they can be part of the evidence and the method itself.

## Related Study Guides

- [12.3 Native American self-representation in various fields](/hs-native-american-studies/unit-12/native-american-self-representation-fields/study-guide/HtlcV3liKjGQWx19)

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