Te Pepe Ao Uri Whāriki: The Development of Pūrākau Analysis Framework

Abstract

Wairaka was the daughter of the rangatira Toroa, who captained the Mātaatua waka navigating across the Pacific Ocean to Aotearoa, New Zealand. When the Mātaatua waka arrived on the shores of Whakatāne, the men disembarked, but when Wairaka saw that the waka was in danger of drifting out to sea, ignoring the tapu forbidding women from handling the waka. She decisively acted to save the waka, calling out, “Kia Whakatāne au i ahau – I will act the part of a man” to draw on the strength of a man. In doing so, she heroically saved the Mātaatua waka and all those aboard. Indigenous peoples have long preserved their historical accounts using a variety of oral traditions. For Māori, the sharing of pūrākau is one-way oral records have been retained, shared and used to teach or inspire. 

“He kairangahau waahine, he whaangai ma matou kia kiia he uri nga Wairaka. We have adopted this group of female researchers in order that they emulate our ancestress Wairaka”.

These words were included in a letter of support from kaumātua to conduct our rangahau of the te kōti rangatahi o Mātaatua. While we were honoured to be embraced, we were equally mindful of our responsibility to emulate Wairaka. From the outset, our research has been influenced by powerful pūrākau like that of Wairaka. In this article, we outline how we have drawn on personal, iwi, hapū and whānau participant pūrākau together with our observations to analyse and re-present pūrākau as a self-reflection and reflexivity analysis tool in developing a framework.