Traditional knowledges are not homogeneous or tidy; they often contain hidden meanings and tensions. In some cases, they are contradictory and therefore understanding them requires careful analytical and critical thought. The marginalisation and exclusion of Indigenous knowledges in contemporary contexts has perhaps been (falsely) justified because they do not easily translate into non-Indigenous ways of knowing. The purpose of this article is to critically examine traditional Māori knowledge and epistemology in relation to modern challenges and meaning-making. Indigenous conceptual frameworks allow for Indigenous interpretation of our experiences on our own terms. A key argument presented by this article is that to utilise mātauranga Māori in genuine and transformative ways, we must first strip back layers of misunderstandings caused by colonisation to develop indigenised understandings that empower us to harness the colour, the contrast and the complexity of Indigenous knowledges in our contemporary contexts.