Donna Frost

Chapter 3 68 It was a lesson that made a great impression upon me. I learnt that we cannot ignore the effects of history and the ways that history, socio-political and cultural context have shaped our experiences and expectations and the way the world reacts to us. In shaping a different future we must take account of how the past has shaped the present if we are to identify and remove barriers to future growth and work towards transformation of both understandings and circumstances. I learnt, furthermore, that although I may experience resonance with a particular standpoint or feel positively about the value of my own contribution, I need to remain aware of the limitations of my own experience and understanding and put effort into coming to know the standpoint of the other. Finally I learnt that some blind spots, particularly intellectual blind spots, are very resistant to illumination when they get too close to home: while the teachers of te reo were struggling to have their viewpoint heard and understood by the established order in the school of nursing, we were being taught in that same school about critical theory and particularly the liberation politics of Freire ( 1970 , 1970 / 1993 ) and Fals-Borda ( 1981 , 1991 b, 1991 a). Within this thesis there is explicit recognition of the holistic and situated nature of knowledge and the influence of place, history and the natural world on our ways of knowing, being and coming to understand self and the world. My albeit limited understandings of Māori values and philosophy have contributed to my conceptualisation of my journey of becoming as ‘finding my place to stand’, a concept known in kaupapa Māori as ‘ tūrangawaewae 6 ’ (Gossage, 2015 ). Further, I have taken to heart the idea that stories can help educate and heal people (Archibald, 2008 ) if they are told and created with respect, reverence, responsibility and reciprocity. Working with these values meant preparing myself to learn from others within the inquiry, building trusting and mutual relationships with research participants and not only taking from participants but also giving, for example via mutual story-telling and sharing of myself. Moral intent Although Gadamer ( 1975 / 1989 ) explicitly states that philosophy should not concern itself with political issues, and perhaps by extension moral issues, kaupapa Māori (Bishop, 2005 , 2015 ; Smith, 2015 ) and other First Nations perspectives (eg. Archibald, 6 One’s traditional place to stand, place where one has the right to stand, connected through kinship, spirit and genealogy, also used to denote a metaphysical place to stand.