It is generally accepted practice that research writing should include a review of literature that serves to locate the study within the field of inquiry. However, in indigenous research, the over reliance on published literature as a repository of knowledge can be problematic. By considering the Māori, doctoral thesis: ‘Tangohia mai te aura’ (Take this rope), this article argues that a review of written material must be extended to embrace non-written forms of knowledge including indigenous documentary making that challenges sanctioned historical narratives, and the oral repositories of experience that exist in indigenous waiata (songs), oriori (chants), karakia (prayers) and pūrākau (storytelling). As an extension of this, indigenous inquiry that seeks to exhume lived experiences of injustice must also frame the genealogically connected, orally accounted experiences of communities, as valued repositories of knowledge.