By Ngaroma Williams
© ChildForum
Within Aotearoa, New Zealand early childhood education pedagogy, the relationships of tuakana, teina are misunderstood, misinterpreted and/or misused.
Ngaroma Williams explains how and calls for a Maori worldview to be expressed and better understood.
To understand Māori social structures it is necessary to know something about whakapapa (see endnote 1). Māori cosmogony (creations) is a significant feature of how tūpuna Māori (ancestors) viewed te ao turoa (see endnote 2); the role they played and the foundations they set down for the generations that follow.
Our tūpuna coined vigorous and valuable methods of passing on knowledge and skills. Whakapapa is an underpinning principle of such knowledge, “whakapapa is a basis for the organisation of knowledge in respect of the creation and development of all things” (see endnote 3).
To keep reading, login with your member's username and password
Here’s how our membership plans work
- Individual Members can view all the individual member-only articles and our library of Research Journals.
- Full Early Childhood Service Members (staff and managers) can view everything including individual member articles, ECE research journals, and management and business (Go to the Join Us page for more details)
- Research Library subscribers have access only to our online library of Research Journals (this includes all past and current journal issues).
If you are not yet a member you are welcome to apply now - it takes only a few minutes to apply 
Go to the JOIN US page
