Colonising processes, which led to the removal of many hapū and iwi from their whenua through conflict and dispossession, significantly altered Māori relationships with environments and associated tikanga. Mārakai, as a manifestation of ahi kaa, formed an important part of Māori resistance efforts to maintain occupation of their whenua. Large-scale disconnection of tangata whenua from whenua severely undermined their wellbeing and ability to maintain nature-culture relationships through continued practice of ahi kaa.

In a 2009 speech, prominent Māori lawyer Moana Jackson said that the novel Once Were Warriors (Duff, 1990) could have been more appropriately named Once Were Gardeners (New Zealand Drug Foundation, 2009). By doing so he argued against the notion that Māori possess a “warrior gene” predisposing them to violence. Instead, Jackson maintained, Māori were more likely to have a predisposition for gardening. Gardening, or mahi māra, has been practised by Māori for centuries in Aotearoa New Zealand. Although motivations may have changed, mahi māra remains an important expression of what it means to be Māori.

This article draws on the textual analysis of films that produced three distinctive collective resistances across New Zealand film history. Hāhi Ringatū leaders protested to the Chief Censor about the portrayal of their beloved prophet Te Kooti in the Te Kooti Trail. The director was forced to make changes, and delayed the release. Later, after decades of support, Te Arawa were collectively absent from film production for nearly 40 years after director Alexander Markey insulted their manaakitanga with a series of misdemeanours during the production of Under the Southern Cross.

This article explores the development of Māori and Indigenous frameworks of resilience, considering the impact of engaging with largely State-led notions of resilience on Māori development. We highlight the closely linked notion of resistance, asserting the necessity of a fi rm political analysis from Indigenous researchers engaged in this discourse. One of the Indigenous criticisms of resilience theories is that by defi nition they assume an acceptance of responsibility for our position as disadvantaged individuals.

Āhuatanga Māori is at the forefront of an education students can expect to receive at a Māori tertiary organisation. Mainstreaming e-Education involves normalising electronic modes of teaching and learning into a conventional face-to-face teaching and learning tertiary environment. Conscientisation, resistance and transformative praxis are processes or stages that conventional teachers experience when faced with new electronic modes of course delivery. In a Māori tertiary organisation the conscientisation and resistance processes are amplified as a result of ako, the traditional Māori andragogical and pedagogical concepts of teaching and learning.