This article presents ancestral knowledge capable of indigenising and decolonising current constructs about conception, pregnancy, birth and infancy. This knowledge comes from the voices of Māori elders and whānau (parents and extended family) who live close to their ancestral marae (cultural meeting spaces). They recall important cultural understandings and practices from Te ao Māori (the Māori world) as they relate to their own experiences. Today, much of this knowledge has been overtaken as the medical models of the coloniser claim these spaces having simultaneously devalued Māori ways of knowing and being. As this group contributes to the revitalisation of these concepts, they are resisting and unlearning the functional and cultural sterility of how their babies were born into this world, for one that speaks to the rich, spiritual and cultural connections to their ancestors.

This paper presents understandings from indigenous Māori kaumātua (elders both male and female) and whānau (parents and extended family members) from Aotearoa New Zealand. These people live in a close-knit hapū (subtribe) community close to an ancestral meeting space known as their marae. Their marae continues to be essential in the promotion of Māori knowledge, language and ways of being. Kaumātua and whānau recall important cultural understandings and practices from this journey. From growing up largely in te ao Māori (the Māori world) they consider “languaculture”, the inter-relationships between language, identity and culture, as foundational to their future “hope” for collective cultural strength and wellbeing. To renormalise the use of the language of their ancestors, we use many Māori words throughout. These words are italicised and translated the first time they are used.