The target article “The double spiral and ways of knowing” presents a striking example of how wave physics can be understood in relation to Māori ways of knowing. The wiriwiri is innovatively represented by a wave form reminiscent of a physicist’s ‘wave packet’. In this commentary I use this evocative imagery to highlight some of the more basic aspects of ‘wave interference’. In doing so, I draw attention to the importance of individual diversity but social interconnection. These are principles that physics seems to agree with, albeit in its own mathematical and graphical language.