Experimental shelter via the Maori development (9)
I believe the answer is:
tentative
'experimental' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'shelter via the maori development' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'shelter' could be 'tent' (tent is a kind of shelter) and 'tent' is found in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'via' is 'aiv' which is located in the remaining letters.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tentative that I've seen before include "Exploratory, unconfident" , "Exploratory - hesitant" , "Experimental" , "Hesitant; not certain" , "Cautious - provisional" .)