The Mental Health (Compulsory Treatment and Assessment) Act 1992 allows for compulsory detainment of tāngata whaiora in mental health inpatient settings. Research is needed that is led by tāngata whaiora and mātau-a-wheako to critically review the mental health and addiction system at all levels to identify opportunities to deconstruct the patriarchal, colonial and normative ideologies of Western psychiatry that continue to intergenerationally inflict harm on Māori (Haitana et al., 2020; Schneller et al., 2022).

This research aims to answer the question: how does a connection to te ao Māori enable healing from trauma experienced from the use of the Mental Health (Compulsory Treatment and Assessment) Act 1992 to detain tāngata whaiora in inpatient settings in Aotearoa? Using Mātau-a-wheako Standpoint theory within a Kaupapa Māori Autoethnographic approach, analysis was carried out of my mental health records to identify the drivers of the harm inflicted on tāngata whaiora when our responses to historical, intergenerational and cultural trauma are pathologised and diagnosed as symptomatic of a mental disorder (Cohen, 2014; LeFrançois, 2013; Pihama et al., 2017).

Kaupapa Māori Autoethnography provides the foundation to (re)tell our stories of struggle within the system and to (re)connect to the healing pathways innate within te ao Māori by discursively shifting between the colonialised world of the mental health and addiction system that obstructs pathways to healing, and the liberating and healing effect of the Kaupapa Māori literature to validate and find meaning and purpose in our stories from within this research paradigm.