This issue of MAI Journal, Volume 11, Issue 2 (2022), contains 7 articles across a range of research areas that are representative of the breadth and vitality of Indigenous research in Aotearoa New Zealand. This issue reflects the multidisciplinary nature of MAI Journal articles, covering removal of tamariki from culturally embedded networks, climate change, whakapapa in the context of research, whānau centred research, cultural embeddedness, discovering and understanding whakapapa in the context of academia, and developing 21st century papakāinga, with a strong focus on kaupapa Māori theory and methodological principles.
The lead article INVISIBLISED COLONIAL NORMS AND THE OCCLUSION OF MĀTAURANGA MĀORI IN THE CARE AND PROTECTION OF TAMAITI ATAWHAI, by Morgan Tupaea, Jade Le Grice and Fern Smith highlights processes that normalise and render settler-colonial norms and values invisible within the context of state care and protection services. This article foregrounds how these processes prevent the use of Mātauranga Māori despite legislated imperatives to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi, in turn creating and maintaining capacity for harm.
The second article in this issue by Nathan Hoturoa Gray, Ariana E Athy and Taciano L Milfont is titled CLIMATE CRISIS AS A CATALYST TO ADVANCE INDIGENOUS RIGHTS. The article argues that a rights-based approach is an important legal avenue to better protect and advance Indigenous peoples' rights and the biodiversity in their regions. The research draws from international legal instrument and using New Zealand as a case study, identifies how enhancement of Indigenous rights serves global goals of climate change migration and adaptation.
This third article in this issue is WHAKAPAPA: Our ways of knowing, being and doing by Paia Taani, which introduces Te Waka Pounamu, a whakapapa-based methodological research framework and a tikanga Māori based model called Te Tuamaka which is the practical aspect of the theoretical whakapapa framework. This article discusses how Te Waka Pounamu and Te Tuamaka promote Māori ways of knowing, being and doing as valid methodological approaches to rangahau.
The fourth article is authored by Angelique Reweti entitled DEVELOPING A KAUPAPA WHĀNAU FRAMEWORK TO SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND HEALTH BENEFITS OF A WHĀNAU-INSPIRED INITIATIVE. The paper outlines the development of a whānau research framework developed by whānau involved in a whānau inspired initiative at their marae and emphasises the importance of working alongside one’s own whānau to ensure research is built around whānau worldviews and what they value.
The fifth article TUIA I ROTO: A qualitative exploration of cultural embeddedness authored by Ririwai Fox, Gloria Fraser, Tia Neha, and Paul E Jose explores the core values, beliefs, and practises of Māori culture, the process of becoming embedded in them, and the strength that can be derived from cultural embeddedness for Māori.
In the penultimate article JOURNEY TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING: The place of whakapapa as a Māori academic, Jan Dewar captures her experience of tracing her whakapapa as a member of Ngāi Tahu and a new academic. She journals her experiences and reflects on the challenges and the uplifting moments of her exploration, encouraging others to embark on their own similar journey.
The final article, titled 21ST CENTURY PAPAKĀINGA: A blue print for resilience, by Waereti Tait-Wall, Tess Kora, Shaun Awatere, Matua Rereata Makiha and Lara Taylor outlines a whānau journey of re-establishing papakāinga on traditional lands, following irreversible damage from exploitation of geothermal taonga. With a determined shift from grievance mode to an eco-development mode, the article provides insights and key eco-development factors which inform a blueprint for resilient whānau-based living, based on the practice wisdom of their tūpuna in the contemporary context.