Tiritiria: Understanding Māori children as inherently and inherited-ly literate—Towards a conceptual position

Many theories support the idea that children’s literacy learning develops as they learn to make meaning through interactions with others. These assertions are premised on the understanding that childhood literacy serves various social purposes and that these literacies are learned through participating in social contexts. In this position paper, we seek to reframe current, widely accepted understandings and definitions of literacy. We draw upon mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge/wisdom) concepts to illustrate Māori philosophical views about the nature of knowledge production. These concepts clearly delineate the link between knowledge, literacies, and power, a link often actively overlooked by western framing of literacy. We use a Māori whakataukī (proverbial saying) to re-conceptualise current understandings of literacy, positing varied literacies and literacy practices. Within this conceptual framework Māori children are re-positioned as maurea – treasures of the highest order, born of and with mana, an integral part of generations of whakapapa (genealogy), and an essential element in an intricate web linking all things (human and non-human). This paper proposes that children are inherently and inherited-ly literate; they are born literate—inheritors of multiple and cumulative genealogies of multimodal communication and knowledge sharing.