Purākau

Purākau come from Māori oral traditions and are one form of traditional narrative. They are useful in passing on important information in narrative form in a way that is creative and holds the listener’s attention, it also aims to keeps the audience thinking about the key ideas or themes long after the story has ended.

Purākau can also be used as a narrative research approach. The principles of purākau provide some clear guidelines about how ‘stories’ can be engaged, documented, and disseminated. As re-presentations, puräkau also offer some key ethical guidenlines.

Further Reading:

Lee, Jenny Bol Jun. (2005). 'Māori cultural regeneration: Purākau as pedagogy'. Paper presented at Centre for Research in Lifelong learning International Conference, Stirling, Scotland.

Example:

Lee, Jenny Bol Jun. (2003) 'Ngā Tohutohu: A purākau approach to Māori teacher narratives' in Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand (TEFANZ) Conference Proceedings, Massey University.