C: Demonstrate a critical understanding of how indigenous knowledge (IK) and cultural responsiveness (CR) inform your practice and research topic

Part Three:

Local and Indigenous Knowledge refers to the understanding or māramatanga, skills or matatau and philosophies, rapunga whakaaro. These types of knowledge are developed by a society who have a long history of interacting with their environments.  These interactions have enabled them to take this learning and base social decisions, environmental decisions and technological developments.  In Te Ao Māori we see this in a complex language with poetic rhythm and complexities of grammatical expression.  We also can see it in the creationist stories. Most Māori creationist stories move from Te Kore (nothingness) to something, and from Te Pō (darkness) to Te Ao (light). Māori also have a complex and well developed system of environmental protection and see themselves as kaitiaki, which have a variety of meanings that stem from trustee to caregiver or steward.  Māori have a distinct cultural identity that is easily recognised across the globe. As the traditional custodians of this land, Māori are bound by whakapapa and the responsibilities bestowed on them as descendants, which also determines the responsibilities to, and for, future generations. This is a very strong theme that recurs and is seen across many aspects of their knowledge.  

Māori have lived with the intricate environmental system that New Zealand has on offer. They are familiar with how to structure a society that will enable it to thrive.  This is knowledge that should be valued and respected. It has proven to work,  ensuring the continuation and success of Māori since the first waka.  It is imperative that Māori must be seen as vital contributors to planning, policy and decision making activities, across all aspects of New Zealand society.  They offer  a unique indigenous perspective to ensuring the continued success of New Zealand's environment and culture.

Mātauranga Māori provides insight into different perspectives about knowledge and knowing. The Māori epistemological penchant for trying to understand the connections and relationships between all things human and non-human first, ‘what is its whakapapa?’ provides a contrast to the western paradigm that tries to seek knowledge and understanding by a close and deep examination of something or someone in isolation first. ‘what does it/he/she do? What is it for?’ 

An initial Te Ao Māori question is, ‘who or what is this thing I am seeing in this world and how do I relate to it?’ Western knowledge’s initial question is, ‘what is the role that this person or thing has?’ In summary, the emphasis on the human element and the impact on the human element differentiates a Mātauranga Māori approach from a Western Pākehā approach. Therefore I need to review what the multi dimensional world of tech and perhaps gaming and avatar use can bring to the table to create my envisioned framework for planning and thinking.

If we were to use these stories and meanings of the stories in our learning it would give a recognisable learning formula for all learnings.  It would validate the learning as being authentic if it in some way showed an attempt at connectedness.  If we show the Whakapapa behind the reasoning for the selection of the learning we might stop having to hear the soul crushing, "Why are we learning this?"  Even for non-Māori learners having an overarching concept lying behind learning activities give a solid foundation to pin all new learning back to.  

The definition of Cultural Responsive as supplied by the  National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCREST), is “cultural responsiveness is the ability to learn from and relate respectfully with people of your own culture as well as those from other cultures.” If we value the knowledge that comes from Te Ao Māori we will be doing exactly that.