At the age of eighty-two, dying of a painful heart condition, Goethe’s last words were ‘more light!’ Probably his vision was dimming and he just wanted someone to open a window. But it is also Goethe’s last perfect metaphor: one final plea for illumination, from a writer who had spent all his life seeking it. [Kirsch, A. (2016, January 24). Life lessons from Goethe. . ] We venerate the greats for good reason. It is their capacity to pierce the unconsciousness state, to explain the human condition. For ordinary folk, we must labour at our craft, which is especially the case for doctoral students engaged in non-traditional research. To be able to write within the boundaries of a chosen discipline, to write to new knowledge, to write to an audience. Ultimately, to produce a thesis that illuminates, makes sense, can be followed, and is persuasive of its tenets. Doing doctoral research is personal and painful. To this, the Tudor Tam represents the highpoint of achievement. This chapter brings to light through storytelling my experience of the challenges of doing non-traditional research from the perspective of a Māori woman engaged in Indigenous research in Australia.