This paper explicates a methodology developed as a collaborative exploration into indigenous community and what it means to be a member of community. Based on indigenous ways of knowing and being within the world, natural conversations was implemented as a method by which to come to know about a particular community’s way of life. Specifically designed based on indigenous understandings of health, family, community and land, including the interconnections between each of these, the root of natural conversations is that members of an indigenous community are themselves the experts about their community. Within the framework of indigenous standpoint the research begins and ends with the experiences and lives of community members, honouring and privileging these voices. Kaupapa Māori analysis of the methodology is presented in order to explore applicability and suitability of this method for use within Māori settings.

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