A current concern in Aotearoa (New Zealand) centres on the relationship of mātauranga Māori to science. Mātauranga Māori is often defined as Māori knowledge, and thus debates have ensued around whether there are disciplines of mātauranga Māori that can be deemed scientific. In what follows, I limit the discussion to both mātauranga Māori and science as they adopt contrasting stances (other possible words are “orientation” or “tendency” – in Māori, “whakaaro”). Both disciplines are broad and I am aware that there is a complexity to both, such that there is no single agreed-on definition for either. “Stance” seeks to encompass this breadth, and expands the discussion from methods, observations, research findings, and so on, to a more fundamental one which is especially important to mātauranga Māori: an emotional commitment to relating to things in the world in a particular way. As the British philosopher Matthew Ratcliffe has put it, “a shift in stance involves a kind of affective transformation of the world” and different stances “do at least comprise dispositions towards certain kinds of questions, arguments and positions”.