Author: Haze White
This article discusses the concept of whanaungatanga as central to the research approach and principles the Wai-Research unit—a West Auckland urban Maori community-based research unit, based within Te Whānau o Waipareira. The parallels to Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) are examined with a core interest in community at the heart of both research approaches, as well as the notion of whanaungatanga being embedded in the relationship between researcher and the community. The specific role Wai-Research has in serving an indigenous urban community is considered in the approach it has developed, specifically a Kaupapa Māori research lens which further gives a legitimate role to whanaungatanga in practice, as a way to overcoming oppressive traditional research practices and in giving voice to and benefiting the community. Whanaungatanga is seen as being naturally located within kaupapa research methods and central to Wai-Research’s development of principles and community research methods to serve its own West Auckland whānau.
Key words: Kaupapa Māori, indigenous, Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR), urban, indigenous.