Kura kaupapa Māori provide a unique primary school education in which children are immersed in a Māori language and cultural environment with the aim of enabling graduates to "live as Māori" within the wider world. The notion of "living as Māori" is a complex idea, but even more complex is the practice of living Māori cultural values because New Zealand society is governed by the English language and a set of values and social structures quite different from those in the traditional world of Māori. This paper interrogates the ideas about "living as Māori" that underpin the kura kaupapa Māori objectives. Interviews with graduates from the fi rst Auckland kura kaupapa Māori give a critical sense of the possibilities of "living as Māori" in the modern world, and the effectiveness of these kura kaupapa Māori in providing these possibilities.