When Smith was a teenager, she moved to the US while her father was completing his PhD. Her family lived in southern Illinois and she attended Carbondale Community High School. In her time in the U.S. education system, Smith gained a newfound confidence as a learner.[6] Smith later moved to Salem, Massachusetts, where she worked as an assistant at the Peabody Museum of Salem, typing labels in the basement.[8] Upon her return to New Zealand, she applied her value of the confidence of students to New Zealand students, especially Maori students.
In the 1970s, Smith was a founding member of the activist group Ngā Tamatoa.[9] She was influenced by texts by Malcolm X and Frantz Fanon. Her role in Ngā Tamatoa was to communicate with Maori people about the Treaty of Waitangi. Smith saw education as the most important part the Maori struggle for freedom.[6] She was a member of Ngā Tamatoa while a university student.[7]
Smith earned her BA, MA (hons), and PhD degrees at the University of Auckland. Her 1996 thesis was titled Ngā aho o te kakahu matauranga: the multiple layers of struggle by Maori in education.[10][11]
Smith is the Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori, Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development and Director of Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato.[12]
In November 2016 she was appointed a member of the Waitangi Tribunal.[16] In the same year she retired Pro Vice Chancellor Māori and took a short-term contract as Professor of Māori and Indigenous Studies in the newly formed Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies.[17]
In September 2020 the hashtag #BecauseOfLindaTuhiwaiSmith went viral when Smith was one of a group of academics who wrote an open letter to the Ministry of Educationonracism in education[18] and news that her contract would not be renewed. A report commissioned by the University of Waikato into claims in the letter found that the institution is structurally discriminatory against Māori[19] but did not support other claims in the letter.[19]
The Rutherford Medal, the top honour from the Royal Society Te Apārangi was awarded to Smith in 2023, "for her preeminent role in advancing education and research for Te Ao Māori, her groundbreaking scholarship in decolonisation of research methodologies, and her pioneering contribution to transforming research for Indigenous Peoples globally".[21] She said of this award:
"I think it’s important for us for Māori, for indigenous peoples, to have our knowledge recognised, and to occupy and create spaces inside the big institutions of knowledge." (Linda Tuhiwai Smith, 2023)[22]
Smith is the author of Decolonising Methodologies, Research and Indigenous Peoples (Zed Books, 1999, 2012, and 2021), a critical analysis of the role of Western scholarly research played in the process of colonizationofindigenous cultures. This work is considered a major contribution to research methodsinsocial justice research.[13][23][24] In a 2023 news item the Royal Society Te Apārangi notes it has been translated into five languages and has 283,000 citations to date.[5]
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Zed Books Ltd., 2013.
Denzin, Norman K., Yvonna S. Lincoln, and Linda Tuhiwai Smith, eds. Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies. Sage, 2008.
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. On tricky ground: Researching the native in the age of uncertainty. N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.) The Landscape of Qualitative Research." (2008): 113–143.
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Kaupapa Māori research: Reclaiming indigenous voice and vision (2000): 225–247.
Cram, Fiona, Linda Smith, and Wayne Johnstone. Mapping the themes of Māori talk about health. (2003).
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Building a research agenda for indigenous epistemologies and education. Anthropology & education quarterly 36, no. 1 (2005): 93–95.
^Smith, Linda Tuhiwai, 1950- (1996), Ngā aho o te kakahu matauranga: the multiple layers of struggle by Maori in education. (doctoral thesis), ResearchSpace@Auckland, hdl:2292/942, WikidataQ111963744{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
