Page 21 - Kete 1 Resource Book

MĀORI WORLDVIEW AND VALUES
A worldview is a theory of the world, used for living in the world. It’s essentially a mental model of reality, or a framework of ideas and attitudes about the world, ourselves, and life, a comprehensive system of beliefs with answers for a wide range of questions.
A person’s worldview is affected by many factors, such as inherited characteristics, background experiences and life situations, values, attitudes and habits they have developed, and more aspects which vary from one person to another. Therefore, even though some parts of a worldview are shared by many people in a community, other parts differ for individuals.
A worldview considered things like:
• What are humans? Why are we here? What is
our purpose in life? What are our goals for life? When we make decisions, what are our values and priorities?
• What can we know? How can we know? Does this knowledge have certainty? Does reality include only matter/energy that you can see, feel, hear or touch, or is there more?
• What about higher powers? Can we know whether God exists? What characteristics does God
have? What relationship does God have with the universe? Have miracles occurred, and do they occur now? Are natural events produced and guided by God? Was the universe self-creating? Does God communicate with us? What is God’s role in history? Is there a purpose and meaning in history? What happens after death?
Worldview and culture
Worldview is the basic way of interpreting things and events that pervades a culture so thoroughly that it becomes a culture’s concept of reality. It considers things like what is good, what is important, what
is sacred and what is real. Worldview is more than culture, even though the distinction between the two can sometimes be subtle. It extends to perceptions of time and space, of happiness and well-being. The beliefs, values, and behaviours of a culture stem directly from its worldview.
There are four aspects which are vitally important to a Māori worldview throughout:
Relationship to a Te Ao Wairua
(higher power/spiritual world and the Creator)
Relationship to the environment immediate and wider
Relationship to immediate whānau extended whānau and then to others
Relationship to self
Reference: http://asa3.org/ASA/education/views/index.html
PSC FW - Māori Cultural Awareness Kete 1 | Published 2017
Page 21