Kaupapa maori: explaining the ordinary

This paper gives an overview of the kaupapa and processes of a Maori health research unit and it's researchers within the university environment. It begins with an understanding that research is often viewed with suspicion by Maori, is implicated in the process of colonisation and that Maori research has, in part, grown out of dissatisfaction with prevailing methodologies. Unfortunately this has also involved confronting the argument that there is no such thing as kaupapa maori research. Defining kaupapa maori research is therefore not a comfortable exercise. The need to define, discuss or explain its existence in itself serves as a reminder of the power of colonisation. Kaupapa maori begins as a challenge to accepted norms and assumptions about knowledge and the way it is constructed and continues as a search for understanding within a Maori worldview. If kaupapa maori is about taking for granted a Maori worldview, then this discourse in itself subverts our right to be maori-ordinary. We are now the other in our own country. While kaupapa maori research may be seen as taking a distinctive approach and having underlying principles or aspects which are based on this Maori worldview, methods are likely to be subordinate to the issues and utility of the research and may be drawn from a range of methodologies. By taking a position that challenges norms and assumptions, kaupapa maori research involves a concept of the possibility and desirability of change. The research should aim to make a positive difference (Smith, 1999) and therefore the use, usefulness and ownership of the research are of paramount importance.