Managers and personnel within tertiary institutions colonised by neo-liberal ministrations and buffeted by the winds of a "change culture" formed within the philosophical shifts of the last century can be considered in terms of "immigrants" or "refugees" within this new territory. The case story of this article is set in a college of education newly situated within a traditional university culture. Superimposed on that scenario is an ontology shift from academia to a neo-liberal business model. The article considers how people, enculturated with an already established socio-cultural paradigm where research, collegiality, democracy and the concept of academic freedom predominate, are challenged to reform their epistemologies to fit the definition of the new culture. The article is a theory-based, qualitative report of a case study using anthropological parameters and terminology of cultures and culture change to map the impact of the change process on the epistemologies of people involved in claiming the post-colonial space. (Contains 42 footnotes.)