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INTRODUCTION: This article discusses the development of a distinctively Māori methodology that centres knowledge and practices that are embedded within whānau. Mātauranga-ā-whānau is a Kaupapa Māori approach that brings a focus upon Māori knowledge that is transmitted intergenerationally. APPROACH: The development of Mātauranga-ā-Whānau as a methodological approach supports both the assertion by Graham Hingangaroa Smith (1997) that Kaupapa Māori must be committed to the validation and legitimation of Māori worldviews and the argument by Leonie Pihama (2001) that there are multiple ways of expressing Māori theories and methodologies. Pihama (2001) highlights that affirming whānau, hapū and iwi ways of being within the broader discussion of Kaupapa Māori is critical. While it is beyond the scope of this article to provide an in-depth discussion of both Kaupapa Māori theory and Mātauranga Māori, it is important to note that both cultural frameworks inform the way in which Mātauranga-ā-Whānau is discussed. CONCLUSIONS: Drawing upon whānau knowledge, experiences and practices, through pūrākau, this article introduces how Māori can approach research applying culturally grounded methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: Indigenous research is diverse and rich with multiple epistemological understandings. There is no one template for how we go about this. Shut out from the hallowed halls of academia for generations, Indigenous wāhine have taken up the diversity of our perspectives and, in doing so, space has been created to compose from our own contexts. APPROACH: This article explores one way of engaging in research as an Indigenous social worker. It is the sharing of my own process of mapping out my legitimacy in an academic space and in a Māori space as a colonised wahine Kāi Tahu caught in the dual complexities of decolonising and living in this time. Navigating wāhine Kā i Tahu methodology is about the journey to create from my own context, honouring the process and the voices and experiences of the wāhine Kā i Tahu who shared in my research. The process includes the melding of traditional Kāi Tahu stories into a methodological framework in Indigenous ethnography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]