Rangahau rangatiratanga: Writing as a Māori scholar

Abstract

To arrive in Aotearoa, we traversed thousands of miles. Waka hourua were our papakāinga and te ra filled with wind to carry us. Finding our way, we drew on knowledge of oceans, skies and winds. Creatures of the sea and air showed us the way and signs and signals of this world and between and across worlds guided us. We made our homes in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, making lives for ourselves, drawing on long held matauranga. Our science, our scholarship is embedded in te tai ao and the survival and wellbeing of our people. We continue to find our way, drawing on long held matauranga and adapting and developing new knowledge. In this article, I attempt to centre being māori, exploring what it is to work and write with colonisation at the margin, rather than the defining determinant of who we are and how we differ. I face the challenge of writing as a Māori scholar, to claim rangatiratanga in our practice and representations of these practices.