traditional knowledge conference 2008 te tatau pounamu

Te Ao Mārama paradigmMETHODOLOGYTe Whakapapa/WhakahekeANALYSISWĀNANGAProcess of UnderstandingIRA ATUAAttributesActsGiftsCONTEXTof applicationHumanityEnvironmentWĀNANGA TAKETAKEFigure 1. The Knowledge Spaces—A Framework for Research. 51Te Ao Mārama ParadigmTe Ao Mārama, as the Māori world view, is discussed at length in Royal’s doctoral thesis, entitled Te WhareTapere (The House of Entertainment and Performance)(1998b). In extensive research that analysedwhakapapa from various iwi (tribes) he explained that the separation of Ranginui (Sky Parent) andPapatūānuku (Earth Parent) was a significant event or a “key nodal point”, as it gives rise to this worldknown as Te Ao Mārama. Te Ao Mārama, therefore, must be a conceptualization of the reality of this worldand so represents both the physical venue from within which Māori history is played out and a spiritual,philosophical and psychological orientation to the world. Royal concludes that it has also given rise to asocietal philosophy and a value system which was applied and found expression in Māori history (1998b, p.91). “Mātauranga Māori is created by Māori humans according to a worldview entitled Te Ao Mārama andby the employment of methodologies derived from this worldview to explain the Māori experience of theworld” (Royal, 1998a, p. 6).51 This figure was formulated through wānanga with TH Paenga (2007).236