Lay summary
‘He Whiringa Māramatanga’ examines Kaupapa Māori music theories and practices as a pathway to accelerating Māori well-being. Music theory is primarily located within western music notation, harmony, and tonality. However, Māori Music, particularly through oral forms such as waiata, karakia, ruruku, haka, pūrākau and whakapapa, illustrate that Māori have unique key elements of musical theories to create oral legacies and that traditional western definitions of ‘music’ may be confining for true Māori creative expression. These creative expressions are legacies informed by distinct genealogical, environmental, historiographic, and intergenerational elements culminating towards its sound, practice, and transmission. Further, Māori music has previously held healing functionalities within all Māori lifeways. This project seeks to bridge interdisciplinary scholarship of Māori music, health, and intergenerational trauma healing.