What the “Catalyst of Happiness” Means in the Tangata Whānau Maōri Paradigm

Abstract

The intention of this chapter is to critically examine what happiness is, what happiness might look like, and what happiness might even feel like from the Māori perspective. It incorporates a personal record of the author's journey of resistance and transformation. It aims to discuss some realities that Māori wahine, including the author, have faced in a colonized Aotearoa. The chapter reclaims a space for Māori women defined by tikanga and kawa while investigating the physiological functions of the whare tangata, whare, hinengaro, and whare tinana and how these inform philosophical constructs. While the methodology used to bring these stories to light was auto-ethnography, qualitative, and kaupapa Māori, combining these methods allowed the validity of the voices to be heard from their own lived experiences and narratives. The chapter articulates to identify and describe “happiness” and what that could possibly look like from a Māori wahine worldview.