Once were navigators. Reclaiming ancestral navigational methods as a methodological research practice

This article identifies the entrepreneurial mindset as a resolve to engage in exploration and action in order to address an issue or accomplish a goal. Entrepreneurial mindset, in the context of navigation, espouses an expectation of resilience, analysis, adjustment, application and development in all areas of intention. For thousands of years, Polynesian navigators negotiated the unpredictable and unknown Pacific islands, waters, winds and rains to voyage the breadth of the Pacific Ocean. Practices of navigating the Pacific required more than focus, direction and determination—the great journeys required in-depth knowledge, experience and capability. Included with these contributors to successful navigation, there is the link to whakapapa, ngā Atua and the pūrākau, thereby making navigational practice divinely associated. This article outlines the five ancient navigational markers used by the Polynesian peoples to traverse the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean and aligns them with a proposed Kaupapa Māori research methodology I call Te Arahina.