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Reference
Tupaea, M. & Le Grice, J. (2024) Mana Tamaiti: Un/binding Gender, Sexuality & Reproductive Autonomy with Mātauranga Māori and Intergenerational Dialogue, in Pasley, A., Gannon, S. & Osgood, J. (Eds). Gender Un/bound: Traversing Educational Possibilities. Routledge. Book ISBN 9781032715520
Mana Tamaiti: Un/binding Gender, Sexuality & Reproductive Autonomy with Mātauranga Māori and Intergenerational Dialogue
Summary
Rangatahi Māori (Indigenous youth) within Aotearoa New Zealand are at higher risk of sexual violence and suicidality than their tauiwi (non-Māori) counterparts. Colonisation, epistemic violence and punitive schooling systems relegated Māori pedagogies and understandings of gender and sexuality to the margins, silenced in favour of colonial expectations of monogamy and a cisheteronormative gender binary. Reducing the risk of harm facing rangatahi Māori requires creating resources that recognise and centre Māori values and knowledges, responsive to the complex sociocultural challenges of living and navigating individual identity formation within an increasingly globalised settler-colonial context. This chapter speaks to resources generated by mātua (parents) that reflect notions of mana tamaiti (the inherent dignity of children) and reciprocal intergenerational knowledge transmission, shaped and informed by research supporting rangatahi in Becoming Sexual Beings. This aims to provide accessible resources that whānau (families) can consume collectively, at their own pace, within spaces scaffolded by aroha (love) and awhi (compassionate support). Through this chapter, we outline and engage with a uniquely Māori approach to pedagogy and sexual violence prevention ensconced within mātauranga Māori – not only as an underlying and ever-evolving body of knowledge, but as a set of living practices and values that provide embodied discourses that enable expansive capacity and possibilities for gender, sexualities, and reproductive autonomy.