Indigenous Philosophies Can Create Global Change and More Just Futures

This spring, the Syracuse University Humanities Center welcomes a visit by renowned Māori scholar, moral and political philosopher, Krushil Watene. She is a member of the Māori tribal communities of Ngāti Manu, Te Hikutu, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and the Pacific Island of Tonga (Hunga, Vava’u). Watene is the Peter Kraus Associate Professor of Philosophy, and Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Auckland/Waipapa Taumata Rau, Aotearoa New Zealand. She will be in residence on campus as the 2024 Jeanette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities.

The Center provides major support for a faculty member to organize the Watson Professorship. This year, two A&S faculty members are partnering to host Professor Watene, each bringing distinct expertise and leadership capabilities – Professor Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson, associate professor of philosophy, and Mariaelena Huambachano, assistant professor of Native American and Indigenous studies and environmental justice.

Watene’s scholarship draws on Indigenous philosophies to address climate change. For example, she suggests that people can transform how they think about the environment by looking through the lens of kaitiakitanga, the Māori concept of stewardship of the sky, sea and land. This mindset, rooted in a deep connection to history, ancestors and the environment, offers valuable wisdom for informing policy and law and helping cultivate a healthier, more reciprocal relationship between humans and the environment... (Read the full A&S article.)