This thesis seeks to acknowledge and address the concerns that Maori people voice about research into their lives. The present study shows that Maori people are concerned that the power and control over research issues of initiation, benefits, representation, legitimation and accountability are addressed by the imposition of the researcher�s agenda, concerns and interests on the research process. Such dominance of a Western orientated discourse is being challenged by a pro-active, Kaupapa Maori research approach. This approach is part of the revitalisation of Maori cultural aspirations, preferences and practices as a philosophical and productive educational stance and resistance to the hegemony of the dominant discourse in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Kaupapa Maori research is collectivistic, and is orientated toward benefiting all the research participants and their collectively determined agendas. Kaupapa Maori Research is based on growing concensus that research involving Maori knowledge and people needs to be conducted in culturally appropriate ways, ways that fit Maori cultural preferences, practices and aspirations in order to develop and acknowledge existing culturally appropriate approaches in the method, practice and organisation of research. This thesis examines how a group of researchers have addressed the importance of devolving power and control in the research exercise in order to promote self-determination (tino Rangatiratanga) of Maori people. In the thesis I have talked with researchers who have accepted the challenge of positioning themselves within the discursive practice that is Kaupapa Maori. As a result, this thesis examines how such positionings challenge what constitutes a process of theory generation within the context of Aotearoa/New Zealand. This thesis further seeks to examine a way of knowing that reflects what meanings I can construct from my positioning within an experiential Kaupapa Maori research matrix. My position within this matrix resulted from critical reflections on my participation in a research group with an agreed-to agenda, my participation within the projects considered in the narratives in this thesis, my talking with other research participants in the form termed "interviews as chat" and from our constructing joint narratives about their/our attempts to address Maori concerns about research in their practice. The broad methodological framework used in the thesis is narrative inquiry for such an approach allows the research participants to select, recollect and reflect on stories within their own cultural context and language rather than in that chosen by the researcher. In other words, the story teller maintains the power to define what constitutes the story and the truth and the meaning it has for them. Further, this thesis seeks to investigate my own position as a researcher within a co-joint reflection on shared experiences and co-joint construction of meanings about these experiences, a position where the stories of the other research participants merged with my own to create new stories. Such collaborative stories go beyond an approach that simply focusses on the cooperative sharing of experiences and focusses on connectedness, engagement, and involvement with the other research participants within the cultural world view/discursive practice within which they function. This thesis seeks to identify what constitutes this engagement and what implications this has for promoting self determination/agency/voice in the research participants by examining concepts of participatory consciousness and connectedness within Maori discursive practice. Whakawhanaungatanga (establishing relationships in a Maori context), is used metaphorically to give voice to a culturally positioned means of collaboratively constructing research stories in a �culturally conscious and connected manner�. The thesis explains that there are three major overlapping implications of whakawhanaungatanga as a research strategy. The first is that establishing and maintaining relationships is a fundamental, often extensive and ongoing part of the research process. This involves the establishment of �whanau of interest� through a process of �spiral dicourse�. The second is that researchers understand themselves to be involved somatically in the research process; that is physically, ethically, morally and spiritually and not just as a �researcher� concerned with methodology. Such positionings are demonstrated in the language/metaphor used by the researchers in the stories described in this thesis. The third is that establishing relationships in a Maori context addresses the power and control issues fundamental to research, because it involves participatory research practices, in this context, termed �Participant Driven research�.

This thesis seeks to acknowledge and address the concerns that Maori people voice about research into their lives. The present study shows that Maori people are concerned that the power and control over research issues of initiation, benefits, representation, legitimation and accountability are addressed by the imposition of the researcher�s agenda, concerns and interests on the research process. Such dominance of a Western orientated discourse is being challenged by a pro-active, Kaupapa Maori research approach. This approach is part of the revitalisation of Maori cultural aspirations, preferences and practices as a philosophical and productive educational stance and resistance to the hegemony of the dominant discourse in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Kaupapa Maori research is collectivistic, and is orientated toward benefiting all the research participants and their collectively determined agendas. Kaupapa Maori Research is based on growing concensus that research involving Maori knowledge and people needs to be conducted in culturally appropriate ways, ways that fit Maori cultural preferences, practices and aspirations in order to develop and acknowledge existing culturally appropriate approaches in the method, practice and organisation of research. This thesis examines how a group of researchers have addressed the importance of devolving power and control in the research exercise in order to promote self-determination (tino Rangatiratanga) of Maori people. In the thesis I have talked with researchers who have accepted the challenge of positioning themselves within the discursive practice that is Kaupapa Maori. As a result, this thesis examines how such positionings challenge what constitutes a process of theory generation within the context of Aotearoa/New Zealand. This thesis further seeks to examine a way of knowing that reflects what meanings I can construct from my positioning within an experiential Kaupapa Maori research matrix. My position within this matrix resulted from critical reflections on my participation in a research group with an agreed-to agenda, my participation within the projects considered in the narratives in this thesis, my talking with other research participants in the form termed "interviews as chat" and from our constructing joint narratives about their/our attempts to address Maori concerns about research in their practice. The broad methodological framework used in the thesis is narrative inquiry for such an approach allows the research participants to select, recollect and reflect on stories within their own cultural context and language rather than in that chosen by the researcher. In other words, the story teller maintains the power to define what constitutes the story and the truth and the meaning it has for them. Further, this thesis seeks to investigate my own position as a researcher within a co-joint reflection on shared experiences and co-joint construction of meanings about these experiences, a position where the stories of the other research participants merged with my own to create new stories. Such collaborative stories go beyond an approach that simply focusses on the cooperative sharing of experiences and focusses on connectedness, engagement, and involvement with the other research participants within the cultural world view/discursive practice within which they function. This thesis seeks to identify what constitutes this engagement and what implications this has for promoting self determination/agency/voice in the research participants by examining concepts of participatory consciousness and connectedness within Maori discursive practice. Whakawhanaungatanga (establishing relationships in a Maori context), is used metaphorically to give voice to a culturally positioned means of collaboratively constructing research stories in a �culturally conscious and connected manner�. The thesis explains that there are three major overlapping implications of whakawhanaungatanga as a research strategy. The first is that establishing and maintaining relationships is a fundamental, often extensive and ongoing part of the research process. This involves the establishment of �whanau of interest� through a process of �spiral dicourse�. The second is that researchers understand themselves to be involved somatically in the research process; that is physically, ethically, morally and spiritually and not just as a �researcher� concerned with methodology. Such positionings are demonstrated in the language/metaphor used by the researchers in the stories described in this thesis. The third is that establishing relationships in a Maori context addresses the power and control issues fundamental to research, because it involves participatory research practices, in this context, termed �Participant Driven research�.

Ko te kookoomuka te raakau i tunua ai te moa. (There is a proper use for everything and only by means of correct useage can the optimum result be obtained) This thesis proposes a model for research into traditional Maori kaupapa. Maori Studies is interdisciplinary in that it combines aspects of a considerable number of other disciplines and adds a further perspective of its own. However, despite the cross-overs with, for example, Anthropology, History, Linguistics, Art History, etc., Maori Studies provides its own unique, emic prespective which adds both depth and breadth to the study. Accordingly, research into kaupapa Maori requires a Maori model which draws from associated disciplines, forms interpretations according to the Maori world view and integrates all the various forms of evidence so that gaps in one area may be filled from another. Some steps towards resolution are proposed where the different forms of evidence seem to contradict, rather than complement each other. In particular the etic versus emic approach is examined with a view. Accordingly, the thesis will include an approach to the analysis and incorporation of traditional information available from: interviews; art; waiata; whakataukii; placenames; whakapapa; manuscripts and early census figures as well as the publised sources which are available. All must be compared with the contemporary oral record of past events, especially since much Maori tradition is political in nature, and the political perspective can change over time ("The Maori Camel"-paper presented to Pouhere Korero/NZHA Conference February 1996). (One of the particular strengths of Maori language material such as placenames, waiata, whakapapa, and whakatauki is that they have usually been repeated verbatim, often by people who hadn�t the language ability to change them. Therefore, like manuscripts they are frozen in time; unlike contemporary oral evidence where stories are retold in each generation.) The case studies look at the traditional Maori perspective on each of the topics and compares it with any research which has been done in Non-Maori ways. (For example, in Case Study 1., Maori knowledge which has been gathered by following the model proposed in this thesis is compared with botanical knowledge about cabbage trees.) Maori language material is not translated but handled in the original and discussed in Maori when a more productive discussion is thus facilitated, therefore resulting in a bi-lingual thesis. For Maori Studies to be fully accepted as having the same mana as other academic disciplines requires full acceptance of the bilingual nature of Maori Studies. However, in the iterests [sic] of wider accessibility, the majority of the discussion will be in English.

Ko te kookoomuka te raakau i tunua ai te moa. (There is a proper use for everything and only by means of correct useage can the optimum result be obtained) This thesis proposes a model for research into traditional Maori kaupapa. Maori Studies is interdisciplinary in that it combines aspects of a considerable number of other disciplines and adds a further perspective of its own. However, despite the cross-overs with, for example, Anthropology, History, Linguistics, Art History, etc., Maori Studies provides its own unique, emic prespective which adds both depth and breadth to the study. Accordingly, research into kaupapa Maori requires a Maori model which draws from associated disciplines, forms interpretations according to the Maori world view and integrates all the various forms of evidence so that gaps in one area may be filled from another. Some steps towards resolution are proposed where the different forms of evidence seem to contradict, rather than complement each other. In particular the etic versus emic approach is examined with a view. Accordingly, the thesis will include an approach to the analysis and incorporation of traditional information available from: interviews; art; waiata; whakataukii; placenames; whakapapa; manuscripts and early census figures as well as the publised sources which are available. All must be compared with the contemporary oral record of past events, especially since much Maori tradition is political in nature, and the political perspective can change over time ("The Maori Camel"-paper presented to Pouhere Korero/NZHA Conference February 1996). (One of the particular strengths of Maori language material such as placenames, waiata, whakapapa, and whakatauki is that they have usually been repeated verbatim, often by people who hadn�t the language ability to change them. Therefore, like manuscripts they are frozen in time; unlike contemporary oral evidence where stories are retold in each generation.) The case studies look at the traditional Maori perspective on each of the topics and compares it with any research which has been done in Non-Maori ways. (For example, in Case Study 1., Maori knowledge which has been gathered by following the model proposed in this thesis is compared with botanical knowledge about cabbage trees.) Maori language material is not translated but handled in the original and discussed in Maori when a more productive discussion is thus facilitated, therefore resulting in a bi-lingual thesis. For Maori Studies to be fully accepted as having the same mana as other academic disciplines requires full acceptance of the bilingual nature of Maori Studies. However, in the iterests [sic] of wider accessibility, the majority of the discussion will be in English.

This thesis investigates how Māori knowledge and language articulate with current discourses of Pūtaiao education, and possible alternative articulations. A Kaupapa Māori version of critical discourse analysis methodology is developed and applied to discourses relevant to Pūtaiao, or Māori-medium science education. This topic represents an intersection between language, science, education, and culture - fields which are all highly politically charged. Therefore, it is essential that a politically robust Kaupapa Māori position be taken in relation to the research topic. Not only the issues being investigated but the underlying research paradigm must be interrogated using Kaupapa Māori theory at each stage of the project. The goal is to study the range of possible meanings for the notions of 'Pūtaiao' and 'Māori science' by exploring the relevant dialectical issues, critiquing the assumptions and positions taken on language, knowledge, identity and ethos, in order to inform further Pūtaiao curriculum development. The research project is a narration of the larger story of Pūtaiao education: what is the current situation, how did it come about, what theoretical issues have been influential in this process, and what possibilities are there for further development of Pūtaiao curriculum and pedagogy? The thesis research consists of a series of discourse analyses of varying levels of focus and intersection with Pūtaiao: Wāhanga 1: Translated NCEA L1 science and mathematics examinations, and a traditional Taitokerau oral text; Wāhanga 2: Māori science curriculum policy; Wāhanga 3: Multicultural science education research; Wāhanga 4: Curriculum politics, preventive linguistics, language of science; Wāhanga 5: Mātauranga, rationality, philosophy of science. Each analysis takes the form of a narrative history, based on a selected corpus of previously published scholarship (in Wāhanga 1, including numerical data and oral tradition) on the issue under examination, from a Kaupapa Māori perspective. Mainly in the first two chapters, analysis at times also draws on 'personal narrative' accounts of previously unpublished details relating to Pūtaiao. Additionally, an investigation of various qualified notions of 'science' is undertaken, beginning in Wāhanga 2, concluding in Wāhanga 5, in order to explore the nature and boundaries of science as a system of knowledge, and its relationship to other types or systems of knowledge. Synopses are included of the following concepts and theoretical issues impacting on the discourses under analysis: Wāhanga 1: Ethnicity, 'race', critical theory, Kaupapa Māori theory. Wāhanga 2: Science, scientism, science ideology and anti-science. Wāhanga 4: Identity, linguistic purism, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Informed by this research, in Wāhanga 5 an original model for the relationship between mātauranga and science is proposed, and the notion of Kaupapa Māori science/epistemology is explored. An analogy between the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and multicultural science is used to draw together the cultural debates in language and knowledge, which are surmised to intersect at the level of discourse. The final chapter presents a re-articulation of Pūtaiao as the notion of Kaupapa Māori science education, and some recommendations for language and content knowledge in further development of Pūtaiao curriculum policy.

This thesis considers the narratives of eight M ori chook keepers from the Waikato rohe, Aotearoa. The Waikato rohe has been selected due to its significant history of M ori horticultural and agricultural practises, including chook keeping. I build on the growing corpus of m tauranga about indigenous studies. Using a postcolonial, feminist and Kaupapa M ori theoretical framework, I undertook five semi-structured interviews and one focus r p with M ori kaum tua. This thesis does not attempt to represent all M ori. There may be considerable difference between wh nau, hap and iwi practices. However, the rangahau provides insights into the views of eight individuals and their experiences with chooks. I have also utilised Country Calendar (1970; 1977a; 1977b and 1980) episodes and children's pukapuka such as Nanny Mihi's Garden (Drewery 2002) for the purposes of discourse analysis. By listening to these stories, kaupapa including race, class and ethnicity emerge that affect the participants' everyday lives as chook keepers. The participants view chooks in a variety of ways. First, as a means of food production. By integrating chooks into their communities, the participants are able to provide a nutritious and low-cost kai source for themselves and their wh nau. This attempts to at least in part address their poverty problems. Second, as a hybridised P keh and M ori kararehe. Third, as hysterical, comical, silly and helpless. I explore these issues within the broader context of colonial, neocolonial and anticolonial practices.

The current state of Aboriginal health is of national concern. Aboriginal people as a population do not have the same level of health as other Canadians. There has been a long history of providing health care based on Eurocentric (Western) ideology that has not taken into account Aboriginal peoples perspective. There is limited research to provide insight toward understanding how Aboriginal people understand, define, and address their health concerns. <p> This study used the Kaupapa Maori Philosophy/Methodology to define health from a Plains Cree (Indigenous) perspective. A qualitative descriptive research study was done in Thunderchild First Nation. A combination of purposeful and convenience snowball sampling was utilized to select 14 participants to reach saturation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven open-ended questions to facilitate elaborations during the interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data, and then the data was categorized using the Medicine Wheel. <p>Four broad themes were derived from the data. Health was consistently described in relation to physical, emotional, intellectual (mental), and spiritual wellness. Collectively there does appear to be a holistic perception of health, similar to the teachings from the Medicine Wheel. Half of the participants described health from a holistic perspective and half described health using two of the four components of the Medicine Wheel: physical, emotional, intellectual (mental), and spiritual wellness. Pursuing and maintaining health included a combination of information and practices from both the Western and Traditional Indigenous world. Further collaboration and research is necessary to determine if the findings are similar among other Aboriginal Peoples in Saskatchewan.

The current state of Aboriginal health is of national concern. Aboriginal people as a population do not have the same level of health as other Canadians. There has been a long history of providing health care based on Eurocentric (Western) ideology that has not taken into account Aboriginal peoples perspective. There is limited research to provide insight toward understanding how Aboriginal people understand, define, and address their health concerns. <p> This study used the Kaupapa Maori Philosophy/Methodology to define health from a Plains Cree (Indigenous) perspective. A qualitative descriptive research study was done in Thunderchild First Nation. A combination of purposeful and convenience snowball sampling was utilized to select 14 participants to reach saturation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven open-ended questions to facilitate elaborations during the interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data, and then the data was categorized using the Medicine Wheel. <p>Four broad themes were derived from the data. Health was consistently described in relation to physical, emotional, intellectual (mental), and spiritual wellness. Collectively there does appear to be a holistic perception of health, similar to the teachings from the Medicine Wheel. Half of the participants described health from a holistic perspective and half described health using two of the four components of the Medicine Wheel: physical, emotional, intellectual (mental), and spiritual wellness. Pursuing and maintaining health included a combination of information and practices from both the Western and Traditional Indigenous world. Further collaboration and research is necessary to determine if the findings are similar among other Aboriginal Peoples in Saskatchewan.

My research focuses on the emotional experience of the unearthing of ancestral bones for local Māori of Matata. The coastal town of Matata in the Eastern Bay of Plenty provides a central case study location as it is a town that is facing the pressure of coastal residential development as well the added strain of dealing with the 2005 flood which has compounded issues over local waahi tapu. Local iwi have continued to actively advocate for the protection of these sites especially with regard to the ongoing discovery of ancestral bones. Cultural and emotional geographies provide the theoretical framework for this research. This framework has been particularly useful as it encourages reflexive commentary and alternative ways of approaching and thinking about, and understanding knowledge. I have incorporated the research paradigm of kaupapa Māori which complements my theoretical framework by producing a research design that is organised and shaped according to tikanga Māori while (in) advertently critiquing and challenging traditional ways of conducting research. The overall aim is to explore the current issues surrounding the discovery of ancestral bones through korero with local iwi members. It is through their perspectives, stories, beliefs and opinions that provide a better understanding of the meanings attributed to waahi tapu and the influence of certain events such as the 2005 flood. I examine, critically the relationship between power, sacred sites, bones and the body. It is from these objectives that I contribute to an area of scholarship that has been largely left out from geographical enquiry. I suggest that the importance of sacredness and spirituality has been relatively overlooked as an influential factor in people's perceptions of the world around them. This thesis is intended to demonstrate the value of indigenous perspectives of bones, the body and sacredness as a way of better understanding some of the complexities that can arise when cross-cultural approaches collide in environmental planning. There are three main themes that have emerged from this research. The first theme has to do with competing knowledges. To Māori, the location and knowledge of ancestral bones is culturally important and is in its self sacred, therefore certain tikanga is applied as a means of a protection mechanism. However this ideologically clashes with traditional scientific western approaches which are privileged over other alternative ways of understanding knowledge, in this case Māori knowledge. The second related theme concerns the process of boundary making and cross-cultural ways of perceiving 'sacred' and 'everyday' spaces. To better understand these perspectives involves acknowledging the embodied and emotional experience of wāhi tapu to Māori, and the active role of kaitiaki in the protection and careful management of these culturally important spaces.

This visual art project has explored the ancient Maori pukorero (oral tradition) of Te Whatu o Poutini (The Eye of Poutini) that articulates the journey of Poutini Taniwha, Waitaiki and Tamaahua from Tuhua (Mayor Island) in the Bay of Plenty, to the Arahura River. An oral geological map, the pukorero also expresses through cultural values, the intimate spiritual relationship Ngati Waewae have with our tupuna, the Arahura River, pounamu stone and each other. Exploring the genres of digital storytelling and video art installation, this project combines them as new media storytelling. The current experience of colonisation and urbanisation emotionally parallel the abduction, transformation and multiple places of belonging experienced by the tupuna Waitaiki at the hand of Poutini Taniwha. The project explores and acknowledges this connection. The survival, restoration and celebration of Ngati Waewae culture and the need to assert control of our own destinies has infused every component of the project.