ABSTRACT
As Maori peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand, our stmggle has been a long and arduous one across years of resisting colonialism to reclaim our identity, lands and original ways of ensuring the well-being of our people. This reclamation had to be consistent with the philosophical premises of a Maori worldview; Maori knowledge creation and transmission processes; values specific to a Maori vision of social reality; and Maori beliefs in the interconnectedness of the individual, the family, kinship systems, the physical environment and 'te ao waima' (the spiritual realm). Maori perspectives of society firmly embed the individual in his/her family, community, and world system according to sets of beliefs that traverse the intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual domains. In other words, Maori practices and relationships are based on a holistic view of the person as part of a wider community to which he or she is tied across time and space.
