I am part of the research group Te Koronga, a Māori Postgraduate Research Excellence rōpū at the University of Otago. Te Koronga conducts research with a vision of mauri ora and is underpinned by a Kaupapa Māori philosophy. For the past six years, under the supervision of Associate Professor Anne-Marie Jackson and Professor Chris Hepburn, I have worked alongside Kāti Huirapa ki Puketeraki of Kāi Tahu and Te Aitanga a Mate of Ngāti Porou primarily in the context of customary fisheries management. For me, as a non-Māori student and researcher, Te Koronga has been a safe space to engage in te ao Māori and Kaupapa Māori research.

In New Zealand, speech-language therapists work through both the health and the education systems. In common with many Indigenous peoples, Māori have faced inequities in both health and education for decades. Kaupapa Māori education systems have been developed to support educational success and the survival of kaupapa Māori knowledge and te reo Māori. However, disparities between Māori and non-Māori still exist in the delivery of speech-language therapy services. The study reported in this article explored Māori experiences of speech-language therapy in kaupapa Māori education using Kaupapa Māori methodology, an Indigenous research approach that privileges Māori culture and knowledge.