In 2006, I was awarded a National Research Fellowship by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, the National Institute for Research Excellence for Māori Development and Advancement hosted by Auckland University. The purpose was to explore the ways in which collaborative research relationships with Māori communities can be effectively and appropriately developed. The working hypothesis was that the epistemological dimensions of academic inquiry are broadened when indigenous peoples are directly engaged in research processes which affect their communities. This brief note outlines the theoretical and methodological processes through which the monograph, Engaging with Māori Communities: An Exploration of Some Tensions in the Mediation of Social Sciences Research, was developed (Kidman, 2007).