40 ● Anita Gibbs and Kate van Heugten
● (^) encourage the development of new Māori models that incorporate
Māori worldviews and ideologies;
● (^) implement the use of appropriate customs, prayers, songs, hospitality, and
gift-giving to structure encounters and relationships between Māori
and non-Māori.
Munford and Sanders (2011) explored five key constructs of indigenous
social work frameworks in Aotearoa/New Zealand. These are kaupapa, which
embraces values, perspectives, and understandings of the work undertaken;
mana, which focuses on respect for persons and acknowledgment of status,
worth, and value; wairuatanga, an acknowledgment of the spiritual component
in everything; whānau, the Māori construct for family, which includes imme-
diate and extended family; and related to this, whakapapa, which incorporates
ideas of connections to ancestors including the influence on identity and sense
of self. Munford and Sanders (2011) also discussed the concepts of tikanga
and kawa, referring to adherence to customs and the proper ways of doing
things. The importance of tikanga and kawa cannot be underestimated in
terms of the importance of building trust and positive relationships between
Māori and non-Māori, as well as between Māori and other Māori.
The kaupapa Māori social work framework has developed from the
kaupapa Māori movements of the 1980s, but kaupapa Māori thinking has
been around for as long as Māori have existed (Walker, Eketone, and Gibbs
2006). Since colonization, Māori knowledge, language, culture, and prac-
tices have been diminished, but kaupapa Māori thinking reasserts the right
of Māori to speak their own language and to maintain and use their own
cultural values and systems (Walker, Eketone, and Gibbs 2006). Kaupapa
Māori incorporates many of the constructs of a bicultural or treaty-based
framework, but its distinctiveness is tino rangatiratanga—that is “sovereignty,
self-determination, governance, autonomy, and independence” (Pihama,
Cram, and Walker 2002; Walker, Eketone, and Gibbs 2006, 333). A kaupapa
Māori framework implements a Māori-centered approach, giving control and
decision-making power to Māori communities, Māori human service profes-
sionals, and Māori clients. Kaupapa Māori social work practice is aimed at
benefits for Māori and is led by Māori practitioners who use explicit Māori
concepts and protocols and the Māori language.
If Aleena or her children were of Māori affiliation, then a human service
professional would approach her situation from an indigenous framework. A
human service professional would arrange a face-to-face meeting with Aleena
and, possibly, other significant family members and start the meeting with
karakia (prayers) or whaikōrero (speeches), focused on appropriate introduc-
tions and connections to each other and to ancestors. It is likely that Aleena