This paper was originally a response to a question posed by the late Dr Bella Graham to a small group of students, ‘Is Kaupapa Māori theory critical and anti-colonial?’ It explores the underlying theoretical frameworks of the Kaupapa Māori approach to research and some of the attendant issues arising out of it. The paper also considers both the foundational literature of this approach and some of the critiques that have attempted to deconstruct and question it.