Te Pū o te Rākau: Pūrākau and Indigenous Storywork

Today, pūrākau continue to be crucial to our identity, sustainability and flourishing as Māori. Pūrākau enable us to articulate whānau expectations and cultural practices, build whānau resiliency and safety, provide hope and inspiration, as well as encouraging collective responsibilities and support.

This project will support the broad use of pūrākau as a theoretical and analytical interdisciplinary tool, as well as the pedagogical potential of pūrākau as a critical practice. Furthermore, it meets with 'Indigenous storywork' coined an conceptualised by Jo-ann Archibald Q'um Q'um Xiiem (2008) to speak to the power of traditional and contemporary Indigenous stories, and the way they are being utilised by different peoples to seek, address and engage 'te mea ngaro'.