Mahi Whakaahua: A Practice-Led Methodological Approach into Documentary Filmmaking Through a Kaupapa Māori Paradigm

Abstract

It is generally accepted practice that research writing should include a review of the methodology and methods designed to increase the chances of the discovery of new knowledge in the field of inquiry. However, in indigenous research, the over-reliance on Western paradigms and methodological frameworks can be problematic, because they do not consider the ontology and epistemology located in ancestral practices. By considering the Māori doctoral thesis: ‘Tangohia mai te taura’ (Take this rope), this article argues that a methodological approach for indigenous researchers must be extended to embrace many forms of knowledge, including Kaupapa Māori as an approach to scholarly research, informed by historical narratives, and knowledge based on oral repositories of experience that exist in indigenous waiata (songs), oriori (chants), karakia (prayers) and pūrākau (storytelling). As an extension of this, an 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 when designing a methodological approach to filmmaking.