Saburo Omura
Hapanihi/Japanese
Saburo is a first-generation migrant from the Western part of Japan. He moved to Aotearoa for a tertiary education, and eventually permanently settled after completing his Masters’ degree. He had worked for the Māori and Psychology Research Unit at Waikato in several cross-cultural psychology research projects, as well as for then-School of Māori and Pacific Development for a wide range of teaching and kaupapa Māori research activities. He completed his doctoral research in 2014, titled the Treaty of Waitangi and Asian Immigrants in Aotearoa: A Reflective Journey. In the ethnic community space, he was a member of the external review panel for Shakti community council inc. between 2021 and 2022. He is a research associate for Te Whare Marea Tātari Kaupapa/the Public Policy Institute at Waipapa Taumata Rau/the University of Auckland, and a full member of the New Zealand Psychological Society.
Asian relationships with Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Titiro whakamuri, kōkiri whakamua
Asian communities have a long association with Aotearoa, with some Indian and Chinese people settling here as early as the 19th Century. Demographic projections suggest that Asians will soon outnumber Māori in Aotearoa and will comprise more than a quarter of the overall population by 2043 (Stats NZ, 2022). Despite this long history and our (Asian) growing number, talk of te Tiriti o Waitangi often centres on Māori and Pākehā relations. In this session, we reflect on our doctoral research - completed 10 years apart - on Asian relationships with te Tiriti. Saburo revisits his 2014 research findings and reflects on what has changed since. Lincoln explores what Asian meditations on relationality and ethics can teach us about be(com)ing tangata Tiriti (people of te Tiriti). This session invites other (Asian) im/migrants to consider how their communities can honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and be(come) tangata Tiriti.
