ABSTRACT. This paper explores a series of conundra that arose about koha, kaupapa whānau and wānanga in an ethics application for a study on trans and irawhiti takatāpui youth-led sexuality education. Thinking with policy documents, Indigenisation and decolonising approaches to tertiary education, the paper illustrates the issues that arise when Indigenous concepts are forced to operate on settler terms. Rather than rejecting Western approaches outright, accountability is sought where the university’s appropriation of Indigenous concepts proves disingenuous, and strategies for acknowledging the multiplicitous constituents of the university are explored. Integrally, the paper provides clear examples where the institution has facilitated its own decolonisation, demonstrating how the possibility of a more just university is already in our grasp.

Keywords: Indigenisation; research ethics; decolonisation; trans and irawhiti takatāpui; sexuality education; one-world ontology

How to cite: Pasley, A. (2025). Un/settling ethical issues: Indigenisation on colonial terms. Knowledge Cultures, 13(1), 82-104. doi: 10.22381/kc13120254

Received March 20, 2025 • Received in revised form April 17, 2025
Accepted April 17, 2025 • Available online May 1, 2025