‘Never-ending beginnings’: a qualitative literature review of Māori temporal ontologies

Abstract

Our experiences of temporality are defined and shaped by our experiential reality. For Māori, our experiences of time have been marginalised by hegemonic western-centric temporal understandings that are privileged and embedded into structures and institutions. Modelling is a commonly-used tool for estimating the benefits of interventions to inform decision-making. In addition to taking little account of health equity, western-centric modelling methods generally omit Indigenous time concepts. This paper presents findings from a qualitative literature review of Māori temporal ontologies and considers implications for modelling within the context of addressing hauora Māori aspirations. Of the total of 5,677 potential records identified, 78 texts were included in the knowledge synthesis. We identified six overlapping themes: Tohu; Hurihanga; Te Taiao; Whakapapa; Pūtahi; and, Mana Motuhake. In contrast with colonial time (understood as flowing uniformly in one direction throughout the universe), Māori temporal concepts were interconnected, interdependent and complex, with multi-layered and multi-faceted dimensions. If modelling approaches are to have utility for hauora Māori, we need to be open to interrogating and critiquing how colonial time shapes statistical assumptions and assigns value to a broader range of epidemiological methods commonplace in health and disability research, including the reification of colonial time in modelling methods.Glossary of Māori words: āmua: hereafter; āmuri: hereafter; anamata: hereafter; ātea: be clear, free from obstruction; hau ora: healthy, well; hurihanga: changing, turning, cycle; kaitiaki: guardian; kaupapa Māori: Māori agenda, Māori principles, Māori ideology; a philosophical doctrine, incorporating the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values of Māori society; koru: spiral motif; onamata: ancient times; mana: spiritual power; mana motuhake: authority and capacity to be autonomous; Māori: name for Indigenous peoples of New Zealand; mua: former; muri: after; pākehā: foreign; Papatūānuku: Earth Mother; pūtahi: meeting place, intersection; takiwā: period of time, space; te ao Māori: the Māori world; te reo Māori: the Māori language; te taiao: the natural world, environment; tohu: sign, symbol; tūpuna: ancestors; wā: period of time, interval; wānanga: to meet, discuss, deliberate, consider; whakairo: carving; whakapapa: ancestry, familial relationships; whaikōrero: oratory; whakataukī: to utter a proverb; whānau: to be born, extended family, family group.