This article responds to increasing school and cross-sector interest surrounding culturally responsive pedagogy and the multiple ways that it is being discussed and understood. We try to bring clarity to how we have come to understand this term both as grounded in cultural relationships and as responsive to the prior knowledge and experiences of the students themselves. These shared understandings come from many years of working and learning alongside teachers, leaders, students, and whānau. These learning relationships, and pedagogy, are discussed from a bicultural, mana ōrite perspective to bring a practical, theoretical, and unique Aotearoa New Zealand perspective to this work.