Pūrākau as a Method: te ao Māori interpretations of oral storytelling.
While pūrākau is often translated to ‘myths’ or ‘stories’ in reo Pākehā, these words don’t really do the idea justice. The kupu pūrākau is in itself an ecological metaphor, made up of the terms: pū – originate, stem from, root, and rākau – tree, stick, plant. Pūrākau are living beings upheld by whakapapa – of generations of storytellers.
One of the most treasured pūrākau in te ao Māori is the story of the separation of Ranginui (Sky Father) and Papatūānuku (Earth Mother). Their separation by their son Tāne Mahuta (god of forests and birds) created the lands where we live today: of spacious, rich natural diversity.
This pūrākau is well understood in its duty as a creation story, however pūrākau do not only belong to the past, but to generations present and future as well. We have a saying in te ao Māori: kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua - walk backwards into the future. The whakataukī (or proverb) invites us to learn from one another, from our past in order to understand the future to come.
As Jenny Lee describes in her excellent article “Decolonising Māori Narratives: Pūrākau as a Method” (2009), pūrākau can also be applied as a methodological tool. Taking inspiration from this, I began to seek a way to analyse stories from a pūrākau perspective, and drew together six key themes to work with: whanaungatanga, reflexive, ako, manaakitanga, decolonising, and living.
These themes (albeit a bit oversimplified in ways), I believe, are really useful frames to consider storytelling from a te ao Māori perspective. They move from the past to the future utilising relationality, experience, and indigenous perspectives in ways that challenge dominant methods of qualitative analysis.
In example, take the concept of intersectionality. As a term it is frequently (mis)used by DEI practitioners and a whole range of professionals. Yet like any term, it too has a story at its origins. One that has been stripped from its knowledge ecosystem.
Kimberlé Crenshaw is an American critical race theorist, who created the theory in order to describe her experience as a black women, and white feminism’s inability to articulate the compounding experiences women experience when also faced with the additional oppression of racism. Intersectionality is not (as many people describe it) – a list of all of the different identities one keeps. It is a response from the black radical tradition to the compounding impacts of these identities.
Crenshaw’s story (and with it the concept of intersectionality) has been stripped of its whakapapa by so many of us. Pūrākau as a method is a challenge to this manner of treating stories as objects to be extracted and misrepresented. Pūrākau, as branches of knowledge from a wider forest of storytelling, are not to be ripped in their cultivation, but nurtured and treated with care.
One of the most effective ways to introduce others to pūrākau as a method is through the process of storytelling. I have created a 90-minute workshop designed to do just that. Its structure is simple: an introduction to the kaupapa, followed by a storytelling icebreaker, and three rotating ‘story circles’ each facilitated by three different storytellers.
At the 2026 Whiria Ngā Kaha Workplace Inclusion Conference, the theme of our pūrākau workshop was to address the intersection of rainbow and neurodivergent identities. And although the workshop was created with this in mind, I have created an open and adaptable version of this workshop. Take it and use it to encourage decolonising ways of telling stories, and exchanging knowledge. And do let me know if you do - I’d love to hear any feedback (it’s really only in its initial development phase). I’m also more than happy to provide feedback, advice, and support about delivering this kind of session within your own organisation.
The resources included are the workshop’s participant worksheet and a simple ‘Creating your Pūrākau’ guide for your storytellers - just click the download button below.
One final thing I’d like to mention is that I love creating stories myself, and have recently published one about DEI, te ao Māori, and rainbow and takatāpui inclusion entitled Ōhanga Rearea, available both as a text and audiobook. Read it online here.
Thanks for reading.
Ngā manaakitanga,
Connor McLeod Director, Uenuku Consultingkiaora [@] uenuku.nz