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Abstract
Mana wahine, often referred to as Maori feminist discourses, is a theoretical and methodological approach that explicitly examines the intersection of being Maori and female. There is little published academic work that engages with Maori women's embodied, spatial and spiritual experiences from an explicitly mana wahine standpoint. The exceptions, however, are significant. I draw on these, in this article, to highlight the exciting possibilities of mana wahine, an extension of Kaupapa Maori theory, as a localised and place-specific theoretical approach that examines the diverse and complex geographies of Maori women. The article reflects on Linda Smith's discussion of four mana wahine projects: wairua, whanau, state, and indigenous and white women's discourses. It is argued that the need to sustain and further develop mana wahine as an epistemological framework is still as pressing as ever. I contend that applying a mana wahine perspective not only challenges the dominant hegemons that continue to Other Maori women but, and more importantly, validates matauranga wahine (Maori women's knowledges) and subsequently matauranga Maori (Maori knowledges).
Keywords
Mana wahine, indigenous feminism, decolonisation, childbirth
Introduction
We as Maori women can, and do, provide analyses of our positions which, based on our own experiences, allow us the space to present and re-present our world. In doing so there remains a desire to be visible in our differences ... We are different, and those differences count. (Johnston & Pihama, 1995, p. 85, italics in original)
Difference has always been intricately woven into the fabric of my life. Similarly, a number of Maori women have reflected on how the intersection of being Maori and being a woman posits us in complex and tricky spaces that require careful negotiation (see Johnston & Pihama, 1995; Johnston & Waitere, 2009; Smith, 1992; Webber, 2008). Our difference(s) matter(s). Historically, our difference(s) has been defined for us, usually by non-Maori men but also by others, and has been defined predominantly in negative terms. That is, that Maori were/are different, and therefore somehow lacking, because they were/are 'not white'. The search for the tools to make sense of my lived and embodied reality, as a young Maori woman/mother/daughter/ academic of both Raukawa and Pakeha descent, is on-going. I, at times, feel trapped in a space between worlds. Mana...