Abstract:
This chapter explores the experience of Māori mothering in Aotearoa/New Zealand by weaving together a brief overview of the literature on Māori women’s maternal bodies and Māori mothering, with autobiographical material about my Māori grandmother, Lulu Skelton (nee Coulter) (1909-1986); her tupuna (ancestors’) and her aitanga (descendants’) experiences of birthing and mothering. The articulation of Māori women’s narratives and ways of knowing can be framed within Mana Wahine theory, a theory which acknowledges and affirms the mana, the status and prestige of wahine, (Māori women) (Pihama ix).