Indigenous Onto-Epistemologies and Pedagogies of Care and Affect in Aotearoa

This article reflects on research conducted in one kindergarten that was part of a wider project focusing on ‘caring for ourselves, others and the environment’ in early years education in Aotearoa New Zealand. The project drew upon both Māori and western theoretical frames. In this article I respond to Bruno Latour's suggestion that we renew our theoretical considerations to make our practice more responsive to ‘matters of concern’. The interlinked matters of concern that are the focus of this article are the endangered status of both Indigenous peoples' worldviews and of the well-being of the planet. Early childhood teachers during the project introduced Māori (Indigenous) seasonal and healing practices within their daily pedagogies, in some small ways perhaps transcending the ongoing disruption and intergenerational trauma of the history of colonisation. It is argued that indigenous ways of being, knowing, and doing enact an ethic of biocentric relationality which, when applied through early childhood pedagogies, offer a source of hope in this era of anthropogenic climate crisis.