'Never-ending beginnings': a qualitative literature review of Maori temporal ontologies

Our experiences of temporality are defined and shaped by our experiential reality. For Maori, our experiences of time have been marginalised by hegemonic western-centric temporal understandings that are privileged and embedded into structures and institutions. Modelling is a commonly-used tool for estimating the benefits of interventions to inform decision-making. In addition to taking little account of health equity, western-centric modelling methods generally omit Indigenous time concepts. This paper presents findings from a qualitative literature review of Maori temporal ontologies and considers implications for modelling within the context of addressing hauora Maori aspirations. Of the total of 5,677 potential records identified, 78 texts were included in the knowledge synthesis. We identified six overlapping themes: Tohu; Hurihanga; Te Taiao; Whakapapa; Putahi; and, Mana Motuhake. In contrast with colonial time (understood as flowing uniformly in one direction throughout the universe), Maori temporal concepts were interconnected, interdependent and complex, with multi-layered and multi-faceted dimensions. If modelling approaches are to have utility for hauora Maori, we need to be open to interrogating and critiquing how colonial time shapes statistical assumptions and assigns value to a broader range of epidemiological methods commonplace in health and disability research, including the reification of colonial time in modelling methods. Glossary of Maori words: amua: hereafter; amuri: hereafter; anamata: hereafter; atea: be clear, free from obstruction; hau ora: healthy, well; hurihanga: changing, turning, cycle; kaitiaki: guardian; kaupapa Maori: Maori agenda, Maori principles, Maori ideology; a philosophical doctrine, incorporating the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values of Maori society; koru: spiral motif; onamata: ancient times; mana: spiritual power; mana motuhake: authority and capacity to be autonomous; Maori: name for Indigenous peoples of New Zealand; mua: former; muri: after; pakeha: foreign; Papatuanuku: Earth Mother; putahi: meeting place, intersection; takiwa: period of time, space; te ao Maori: the Maori world; te reo Maori: the Maori language; te taiao: the natural world, environment; tohu: sign, symbol; tupuna: ancestors; wa: period of time, interval; wananga: to meet, discuss, deliberate, consider; whakairo: carving; whakapapa: ancestry, familial relationships; whaikorero: oratory; whakatauki: to utter a proverb; whanau: to be born, extended family, family group