Māori and Pacific researchers are working hard to transform our research system to enable Māori and Pacific postgraduate students to thrive in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Yet barriers remain, and each new postgraduate generation inherits evolving challenges and opportunities to navigate. This paper is written for Māori and Pacific people who are about to enter the postgraduate STEM space, recognising that we need our own words to help future students to navigate this journey.

As the government shifts its focus from COVID-19 elimination to addressing the longer-term social and economic repercussions of the pandemic, it is critical that Māori are able to partner and lead in decision-making. In the new normal of a post-COVID Aotearoa, the transformational vision of just

This paper explores the interface between mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and a model used to describe knowledge systems known as the Data- Information- Knowledge- Wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy. By considering how DIKW describes a non- Western knowledge system, we reveal ways that the DIKW pyramid concept may be expanded. We fi rst explore the practices that mātauranga Māori draws upon to establish relationships between data, information and knowledge, considering particularly how the concept of whakapapa interfaces with the DIKW pyramid model.