Making worlds together is an account of an unexpected rangahau (research) journey. The project set out to explore how current maternal health services are not meeting the needs of māmā and whānau. It aimed to explore how our health system — designed and funded by decision makers, policy creators and clinicians to deliver generalised services to prevent or manage ill health during pregnancy — rarely embodies te ao Māori understandings of whānau wellbeing.

Instead, this is a story of what happens when a funded and time-bound project derails. With four diverse wāhine voices, academics and practitioners from mātauranga Māori, public health, health promotion and creative arts research — this story is about things seldom talked about.

This report narrates the research in four parts:
The beginning discusses the origins of the rangahau and how the project sought to join with māmā and whānau to find ways to restore maternal health and wellbeing. At its heart, the desire for the research was to be a collaboration between mātauranga Māori and tauiwi researchers.

The unravelling unpacks the attempts to start the rangahau and how these engagements failed. After encountering silence and resistance multiple times, the project team understood that their approach was becoming obtrusive and creating discomfort.

The reflective middle includes the four narratives: Carmen Timu-Parata’s A stripping of values — experiences of moving between two research worlds, Susan Knox’s: Rethinking productivity — moments of awakening, Eva Neely’s Beyond reflexivity — embracing discomfort and Anna Brown’s: Trustlines — working at the speed of trust.

Where we arrived concludes with the choices that were made by the team. It explores the vulnerabilities and missteps and offers ways of healing and restoring to make 'better worlds together'.