In the Māori world, whakapapa (genealogy) can be traced back to primordial ancestors Papatūānuku   (earth mother) and Ranginui  (sky father).  Whakapapa is the ancestral descent and inter-dependence of all living things from ancient cosmology and celestial gods, through to the present time which forms the basis of wisdom and knowledge.  It is through whakapapa that Māori identify who and where they come from and how this links them to the natural world.

Traditional Māori culture is matriarchal, based on the first human ancestress Hineahuone, moulded from the earth who then brought humans into being.  Kinship systems were arranged matrilineally.  The adoption of Christianity however relegated women as inferior to men which had a subjugating effect on Māori women. Moreover, they ruptured the sacredness of relationships between humankind and the natural world, the physical world, and the spirit world, the seen and the unseen, men and women, parents and children, mothers and babies - and destroyed the nurturing protective environments required for customary birthing practices, ceremonies and collective child-rearing.

This analysis critiques Eurocentric developmental attachment theories as harmful and benign, and discusses the urgency required to implement cultural practices to recover from generations of colonial violence and revitalize, restore and reclaim mana (dignity), identity and wellbeing.