Donna Frost

Philosophical foundations and methodological principles 67 3 As a nursing student in the early 1990 ’s inAuckland, NewZealand, I became properly aware for the first time of the marginalization of kaupapa Māori 4 and of Māori people generally within New Zealand (cf. Bishop, 1998 , 2005 ; Walker et al., 2006 ; Bishop, 2015 ; Smith, 2015 ). We were asked to discuss the effects of colonization during class and in written work. We saw how Māori experience was rendered invisible and witnessed it first-hand. For example, in an examination supposed to be testing our ability to practise cultural safety, all the questions assumed that the student nurse was not Māori. As well, there was debate within the nursing school as to whether it was appropriate to teach the class of largely Pākehā student nurses to speak the Māori language. Although the Māori Language Act ( 1987 ) recognised te reo Māori 5 as an official language of New Zealand, this recognition was the result of a long and often discouraging political battle against a history of decline in public and private use of te reo (Smith, 2015 ), including active suppression of te reo in schools (Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2017 ). This struggle to legislate for the survival of the Māori language, a struggle of central importance to Māori identity, sovereignty and potential for human flourishing – for what is connectedness without language? – was one I had been completely unaware of. Realising this felt enormous to me at the time. The language teachers invited by the school of nursing to teach us te reo were faced with a moral dilemma. How could it be just to share this treasure with young Pākehā when it was spoken by less than 20 % of Māori people? How, on the other hand, to encourage acceptance of te reo and communicate the philosophy and ideology of kaupapa Māori without teaching te reo to Pākehā New Zealanders? Here I saw first-hand how the personal becomes political, how some moral issues have no straight-forward answer and how our history and our opportunities are connected. The language teachers stood by their principles and we nursing students were not taught te reo . We were asked to be supportive without co-opting resources for ourselves. We were asked to listen to the perspective of another and not assume we knewwhat needed to be done. 4 Kaupapa Māori means Māori ideology - a philosophical doctrine, incorporating the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values of Māori society. As well: Māori approach, Māori topic, Māori customary practice, Māori institution, Māori agenda, Māori principles. 5 Te reo Māori is the Māori language.