Ceding Sovereignty to the More-Than-Human: A Maori Perspective
In-person Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power Event, in collaboration with Lancaster University and Glasgow Caledonian University
School of Social and Political Sciences; College of Social Sciences Hub
Date: Thursday 23 April 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:30
Venue: Gilbert Scott Building, Room 466 Lecture Theatre
Category: Public lectures, Academic events, Student events, Staff workshops and seminars
Speaker: Professor Carl Mika
What happens to talk of sovereignty when it is made to include a Maori notion of the world? If we make a statement such as ‘the world is interconnected through whakapapa (genealogy)’, then we can reasonably expect to have to acknowledge the implications of that for self-organisation generally but, in particular, for the human realm. It might end up that the human being does not have a great degree of control even over their own expression: the more-than-human realm has composed what we will say, write, paint and so on. And it continues to constitute those things. If so, then in the wake of that statement about interconnection we would have to moderate our certainty about whatever is talked or written about or portrayed through art. This disturbance of certainty, which does place the human self as sovereign and then makes all talk of sovereignty about the human, becomes vital when we consider that it appears to have been introduced through colonisation.
We often encounter holistic talk of the order of ‘the world is interconnected through whakapapa’, and this talk will consider some of the finer possibilities and consequences of that sort of utterance. The sovereignty of the more-than-human world is especially important in this discussion (see e.g. Ahenakew et al., 2014). This makes immediate sense when we think about, for instance, the ocean, which dictates its own movement (and ours). However, there are also intangible entities – including the totality of all things – to consider, and these will be the main focus of this talk. Recentering the All – arguably one of the senses of ‘whakapapa’ and other Maori terms – may both encapsulate a Maori notion of sovereignty and, somewhat conveniently, itself be the most important sovereign act we can perform in response to its human-centered version.
Ahenakew, C., Andreotti, V., Cooper, G., & Hireme, H. (2014). Beyond epistemic provincialism: De-provincializing Indigenous resistance. AlterNative, 10(3), 216-231.
This event will take place in person at the University of Glasgow, Gilbert Scott Building, Room 466 Lecture Theatre. Please register in advance to attend.