Kia ora, tēnā tātou i roto i tēnei wahanga o te tau, ko te hotoke pērā. Kāre e kore kua taumai a Hine Takurua ki tōna taumata, kia pipiri ai tātou te ira tangata. Āko ake nei kā rewa a Puanga, a Matariki hoki, kia mahuta ake ki te pai.
He tohu o te pai, kia tātou katoa. Kei nā mate o te wā, haere rā, e moi, okioki atu. Kia tātou te hunga ora, tuatahi ka tika me mihi atu ki nā iwi me nā hapu o tēnei rohe, no rātou te mana ki te Whanganuiātara ki Pōneke nei.
Kia koutou o nā maunga whakahi, o nā wai whakaora, nā mana kei tēnā pito, kei tēnā pito o te motu, e hono mai ana, e are are mai ana i tēnei wā. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, naumaira raumau i tēnei haora. E rere taku manu ki te whenua taurikura o oku tūpuna, ko te nehenehe nui tērā, mōkau ki runga, tāmaki ki raro, mangatoa toa ki wāinganui, pare hauraki, pare wai katoa, ara ko nā tohu whenua e rā o taku waka tainui e. Ko Rereahu te tūpuna, ko Ngāti Kinohaku te hapū, ko Ōpārure te marae e pātatana ki taku manua, no te rohe potai o Kingi Tawhiao ahau.
I tipua ahau ki rotu i nā tini manaakitanga o nā marae me nā hapū o Ngāti Maniapoto. Ko tēki ahau. Warm greetings to you all this winter season.
We can be in no doubt that Hine Takurua, the Winter Maiden, has ascended to her domain, causing us mere mortals to keep close and cling together in the cold. Soon, Puana and Matariki will rise and be elevated to our view of the horizon, a sign for us to reflect on what has been and to look forward to what is ahead. To those recently gone to the stars, our tūpuna, our loved ones who have passed from our sight, we bid thee farewell.
Go, sleep, rest. To us, the living who remain here, I first acknowledge those mandated iwi, hapū authorities, who determine matters here in Wellington City, I greet you. To you and each of you, I greet you.
You and all your noble mountains, your waterways that refresh and rejuvenate, and the many sites of significance in each corner of the land, where you are and where you originate from. To you and each of you who has joined us today, who is listening at this time, I greet you, I welcome you to settle in with me this hour. Fly my bird to the thriving nirvana of my ancestors, the place they called Te Tehenehenui, the beautiful ancient forest.
Mōkau to the south, Tāmaki to the north, Mangatoatua in between, the boundaries of Waikato and the boundaries of Hauraki, to the place they call the long armpit of Kaukauroa. Those are the landmarks of my waka, that is, Tainui. I was raised to know and understand the many family and marae relationships that connect me to the several hapū and are affiliated to the iwi that I belong to, which is Ngāti Maniapoto.
Bereahu, who was Maniapoto's father, is my principal ancestor. Kenohaku, one of Maniapoto's sisters, provides the name of my hapū, and Ōparure is the marae that is closest to my heart. I was born and bred in the King Country.
My name is Jackie Ngā Waka. To each of you, to all of us here today, I greet you. Thank you for taking the time to join me today, but what I'm sharing with you is not a step-by-step, do this, do that type of korero.
The ten tips are things you may already know about and will, after this, perhaps ponder more deeply, or there may be something new in them for you to discover and explore further, or perhaps something to consider according to your unique situation and to prompt you to act if you feel it is right. What I'm sharing today is based on the experiences of my life so far, which includes being a fair-skinned female who identifies strongly as Māori, coming from a whānau very active in marae life, and parents who were deliberate about finding success in mainstream systems and a society that they knew did not value being Māori. To then becoming a university student who became immersed in some of the lesser-known history of Aotearoa, became conscientised to the impacts of colonisation, the inequities of Māori and the potential of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and formulating my own ideas about what it really meant when governments of the time were saying that Māori were falling through the gaps.
And through to the most recent 20 or so years of my life where I've had success in mainstream systems, I've gained significant experience working in bi-Māori, for Māori organisations, and grown as a mother and grandmother. All of that is context and background to the kōrero today, including what I've seen, what I've learned, some of the missteps I've taken, and the insights I've gained from watching others. Before we get into the 10 tips, just want to let you know that this webinar is the first in a series around Te Ao Māori that Ellen and Clark will be developing over the coming months.
We'll be including other tangata whenua members of our teams, and other tau iwi from our organisation as well, to talk more specifically about some of what we see, of what we do, and how Ellen and Clark is developing as a tangata Tiriti organisation. So, 10 tips to help improve Māori engagement. Let's start with perhaps the first three that I've grouped together, which are around things that I think you should already know.
They're sort of the basics, the tūāpapa, as we would say, the foundation. So for me, one of those first basics is around Te Tiriti. I fervently believe in the unique potential of Te Ao Māori to guide and drive the future prosperity of Aotearoa, of this country, and the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and providing the legislative foundation for that to happen.
For me, that's it. That's a base. If you haven't already, I would really encourage you to do some training around Te Tiriti, and if at all possible, get a cohort around you to learn and reflect with.
Think about what might we see now if Te Tiriti had been consistently honoured, and you might look at that in your space that you work in, in your family, in your community, in whatever area you think. But what might it look like now? How would that affect decision-making, resources, relationships, if Te Tiriti had been consistently honoured? It's about understanding that what we're seeing today for Māori, and seeing that in its bigger context, not only in terms of inequities, but also Treaty settlements and reclamation of names and spaces, and all that's going on for Māori, and understanding that in the context of Te Tiriti. It's also about understanding, recognising our responsibilities moving forward, not only in our organisations, but also personally.
So Te Tiriti, number one basic. The second thing I think that's really important to know is that Māori are diverse. We have mana whenua, whānau, hapū, iwi authorities, urban, we're rural, tamariki through to kaumātua, and there are a number of stages in between there.
There is different exposure and experience of mātauranga Māori, te reo Māori, tikanga and marae life throughout all people who identify as Māori. We have come from different religious backgrounds, we've had different educational experiences and success in education. We have different land or other resource holdings, particularly some in communal or collective interests.
We come from different political persuasions as well. One single Māori will not give you a fullness of a Māori perspective. You need to recognise that.
I'll give you an example too. Now, Matariki. We're all talking about Matariki, it is the time.
For some, in some parts of the country, there are nine whetu or stars that are acknowledged. In other parts of the country, there are seven. In other parts of the country, including where I come from, the marking of the new year is done by the longest night and the shortest day, rather than necessarily the seeing, rather than, sorry, seeing the constellations rising.
So there is, Māori are diverse. Third basic, I think for Māori, is that relationships are everything and they can transcend every border or barrier, including time. So projects, initiatives, leaders, when we look back, can rise and fall based on the strength of relationships.
People, Māori, may be more interested in where you come from and who you're related to or connected to before they want to talk to you about your plans or your kaupapa or your project. Be open and lean into that. Relationships are usually, probably always, long-term.
So once you've established a relationship with Māori, try and nurture it and recognise that perhaps your short project deadline may well only be a tiny part of how Māori are thinking around that particular kaupapa. They may want to share what happened decades or hundreds of years ago to help you understand how things got to now. They may also be thinking decades or hundreds of years ahead to how your thinking or plans will impact on their mokopuna or generations beyond.
Okay, so here's two things that happen, can be quite common, to avoid or stop doing. So the first one is stop telling Māori what your plan is for them. Instead, start now to develop multiple relationships and as soon as you realise that you need specific Māori input for something, start making contact.
Because it may not happen as quickly as you would like or that fits in with your schedule. When you have established contact and are engaging, trust Māori with the issue you have. Get their opinion and response first before you start drawing conclusions about what should happen next.
And I would also say be upfront about the challenges and issues that you can see and encourage them to share the solutions that they see as well. Don't go there with a predetermined, this is how it's going to be, these are the limits of it. The other one to avoid doing is undervaluing Māori knowledge and expertise.
Instead, treat Māori like your most trusted scientific, commercial or strategic advisors. Consult early and place a premium on their time and contributions. What is the expectation that your most trusted advisors have? That's the same for Māori.
Kuha is a minimal acknowledgement, but aroha doesn't pay the bills. And you may want to explore options as well with Māori because sometimes money can have unintended consequences when it comes to things like consulting. I'll give you an example.
A Māori organisation I worked with, we had some kaumātua who were part of advisory in a governance capacity and we wanted to show that we valued their time. And so we did that through the normal governance channels of paying a fee for governance, etc. But what happened with some of those kaumātua who were mostly retired was as those payments went through the monetary system, there ended up being unintended consequences like them getting bills for ACC levies and tax and things like that where they sort of ended up almost worse off than before.
So think about all of those as well. You want to show that you are valuing their knowledge and expertise and talking with them about that is a good option. The next five are, I would call them sort of steps.
Again, not necessarily in order to more effective engagement. So the first one would be about identifying what I would call historical disablement. And this is to build understanding, acknowledgement, appreciation and empathy.
And this is connected to the first basic around Te Tiriti. So think about what legislation, systems, processes have had the effect of disabling Māori voices in decision-making related to your area. What is the history of your kaupapa when it comes to Māori voices and decision-making? An example with Te Tai Ao.
Imagine you're in an environmental organisation, entity. You're going to talk about a particular issue that you're very passionate about, a lot about from your perspective and training, etc. And it relates to an area of land and the land that is being discussed was alienated from Māori ownership over 150 years ago and is now part of a Crown Reserve.
Now the kaumātua you are talking to is the grandson of the person that the land was taken from, by what is now recognised in public record as being dubious circumstances that breached Te Tiriti. So how might that knowledge or even assuming that that scenario may be in play inform your communication with that kaumātua but also with other Māori in that area? Identify what's happened in history as far as you can to build understanding, acknowledgement, appreciation, empathy with the Māori people you are wanting to engage with. Another step is personal.
Identify, reduce, mitigate personal bias. I just want to acknowledge Jen Margaret from Groundwork for some of the kōrero today about this. And this is connected to diversity as well.
So this is about self-reviewing and peer-reviewing to reflect on your assumptions and identifying your assumptions, the things that you assume about Māori, Māori people that are colouring perhaps decisions that you make. You can try an implicit association test. Hadn't heard of it before.
Harvard runs some, you can look them up online and you might be surprised at the implicit associations that you make. Ways to mitigate that bias as well is to counter perhaps negative stereotypes that you're used to seeing or buying into. For instance, read more Māori authors and Māori histories of the area, written by Māori of the area you either work in or live in or both.
Learn te reo. Engage with Māori organisations. Those are all ways to try and counter the negative stereotypes.
Also, you know, see people as individuals rather than members of a particular group. Because as I've said before, Māori are diverse. Think about what is your colonisation story? How have you perhaps benefited and what advantages have you been afforded because of access to resources and systems that have legitimised the structures that we have today? Best thing I think for Tauiwi, for non-Māori when it comes to the best position for you to be in when it comes to engaging with Māori is to become an ally.
Become an ally to Māori. Another step to more effective engagement. Three, I call them pātai pai or good questions perhaps to Māori.
And this is connected to the idea of valuing expertise and knowledge. So three good questions you might want to ask of Māori as part of your engagement on whatever kaupapa. One, what does this mean to you? Ask that of the Māori people you're engaging with.
Two, what do you think needs to happen here? And three, how do you want to be involved? If you genuinely go with those three questions and listen for the answers and feel what is being said you'll gain a whole lot of insights. about Māori and related to your kaupapa. The other step is, and I guess this is talking more when probably with a lot of Crown agencies but there will be other organisations as well who are looking to collaborate and develop partnerships with Māori.
And that's really the key of this one. Collaborate with others to develop a joined up response as much as possible. A good example that I was involved in I'm a little bit biassed to this one but Te Kotahi o te Tauihu Charitable Trust based in the top of the South Island was iwi mandated.
And that was the first milestone. There were eight iwi who all collectively agreed on some strategic priorities and mandated this trust to be formed. Then the delivery of those strategic priorities was supported and resourced by Crown agencies.
So we had iwi coming together first of all to set the strategy and Crown agencies in the region saying how do we help make this happen? How can we help deliver on those priorities? That's a great example. And it's not a translated version of government systems that's what the trust is moving towards but a partnership model with recognition that Māori are the best people to solve the issues that affect them. And probably the last one is look for working examples for strengths and lessons and collaborations.
A couple of examples that I could think of one is the Waikato River Authority a good example I would say of a co-governance arrangement. They're approaching 10 years now with the purpose of restoring and protecting the health and wellbeing of the Waikato and Waipa Rivers. They have five iwi appointees, five Crown appointees with co-chairs from each and there will be strengths and lessons to learn from what they are doing working together.
Ka Uru Ora, another one that I'm aware of is an iwi led response to address systemic and persistent housing crisis but working with iwi led and working with other Crown agencies as well and that kaupapa is to grow intergenerational wellbeing include savings, financial education, home ownership all opportunities to move whānau towards financial independence. And they currently have about nine iwi affiliated from Taranaki and Petau Ihu. So those are the 10 tips in a nutshell.
Te Tiriti, diversity, relationships building trust, valuing expertise identifying disablement identifying personal bias Pātai Pai, three good questions to get you on the road and collaborate and look for strengths and lessons. So we've tried to distil some of the more popular questions across the many registrations that I'm going to sort of try and answer here and just supplement some of the tips that I've already given. You can ask any other questions too by contacting us here at Arden and Clark.
So the first question was around te reo learning te reo, I don't know enough te reo those sorts of things. So I would say the use of te reo is encouraged we want to normalise te reo but think about the purpose of why you're using it your audience, your competency and your source and have some good sources I would say avoid automatic translators that aren't backed up by a reputable source and find safe spaces to practise and hopefully that's in your organisation if not in your home or in other spaces too. It's not always necessarily appropriate to even if you're very keen to stand up in a Māori hui to practise your pepehā say for instance not always it's more about the space rather than perhaps your desire to want to show that you know some te reo.
Learning te reo is a personal, lifelong commitment if you're just thinking about it for your job you may be able to do a few things but really it's lifelong it really is, and it is personal and you can't expect necessarily that workplaces or organisations will put you through learning te reo necessarily you may have to take some of that on yourself and if you really want to then you will and I encourage you to but also remember that there are a whole lot of Māori people who for different reasons don't know te reo as well and so my personal thinking is that organisational resources around te reo should be targeted to Māori first that's me personally but if you've got a workplace that will support you, go for it it's going to take a long time you'll never be fluent I will never be fluent, it's a long commitment the other thing I want to note about te reo is that there are spiritual unseen elements in te ao Māori and te reo is what opens that up in a way it's not just transactional it's not just a translation of a word you already know in English or another language it comes from another place as well and so just to be aware of that the second question we got was this I'm afraid of offending people if I don't do this if I'm not good enough at that if I haven't got it right all those sorts of things I think this probably comes with lots of kaupapa not just engaging with Māori but I would say feel the fear and do it anyway when it comes to Māori follow the leader is always a good tip follow the leader do what other people are doing attend more Māori kaupapa and hui and events so you become more comfortable about what people are doing and not doing I think maintaining humility is really important you don't need to know everything you won't know everything and that's fine you're not expected to know everything and also read the room just read the room and follow another question was about the relationship building which we talked about it takes time which is true so how do we engage short term and this comes back to the we've got a little piece of work that we want to get done and we need to get Māori input but we don't have a lot of time there's not much you can do about that in terms of you can't if you don't have more time you don't but you won't necessarily get the result that you're looking for so broaden your circles of networks now get people you know to make introductions for you if you need to and use their networks as well if you can do a face to face or a phone call before you meet people that would be great and before you email people that would be great be flexible about how and when and where you meet people you may need to go out of your normal Monday to Friday hours in order to engage with Māori and not only think about what you can what you need but what you can do and how you can help them those will all go towards building a relationship and the last one was how do I get my team or my organisation to change with me which is a good one learn everything you can change yourself first but also in the organisation ask for opportunities to share what you're learning with your team or with others you know find examples and lessons from other similar organisations be a squeaky wheel you know offer to help to make the change happen and I think again generally it's like with anything again read the room get to know the people who you think you need to influence So we've got a question here from Kirsty Baggins asking how can Pākehā Tāo Iwi be good allies and respond when seeing some of the harmful negative activities like the recent tour of an anti-co-governance speaker without inadvertently giving more voice and visibility to those harmful causes, messages and without being an unnecessary or unwanted saviour Oh wow, big question look it sounds like that Kirsty Kirsty is you know you've got a good feeling about what you're trying to do which is great becoming an ally I think is, the position is becoming an ally to Māori so I would encourage you to seek support from other Māori as well about how they in your particular area about how they would like support given, I don't think it ever hurts to stand up for what you what you think is right but I would just encourage you to stay close with other Māori and other allies and build a group around you so that you don't feel like you're on your own and you are getting some help and support that's something that we're just starting to do here at Eleanor and Clark with a Tāuiwi Tautopu group and a lot of it starts with people recognising things in themselves first but also recognising that you're an ally to support what Māori would like to do moving forward so I would just encourage you to keep your networks and your relationships with Māori and other allies strong to get the support you need to deal with things as they arise So Rebecca Henderson has just put in a question asking if you don't have any connections already with Māori in your work, how do you get started? I think I'd talked a bit about this before perhaps talk to Māori colleagues about places, about people you could speak to Again if you're talking about a particular kaupapa, you may want to go back and look at what's happened historically around that kaupapa and identify where Māori have been relative to that kaupapa which may give you ideas of the sorts of groups to connect with You just have to start talking to people and asking questions and feeling your way through to find people who can support and help you And a question from Tina asking So Tina's about to start a job back in New Zealand producing events How does she make sure that she has diversity on her panels without it looking like it's tokenism? Look, I would always say that when it comes to diversity Māori as tangata whenua start there and let them guide you as to whatever other See, I don't include Māori necessarily in the diverse range of people. I see Māori as tangata whenua and everyone else who has come into this country as tangata tireti. So for me, that's the foundation.
And then other diversity from there It's tokenism, I think, if you're trying to tick a box, but if you're being genuine about wanting involvement, then bring them in and don't just bring them in to be there, to be seen but make sure they're involved in decision-making, in designing what things look like and the way things run Diversity, I think, is about bringing voices not to be seen to be diverse, but to be heard and felt to be diverse so that things actually change Danielle Carson asks if you have any advice around when Matawaka and mana whenua don't see eye to eye You leave that with them to sort out You leave that with them So we've got Bradley Wilkinson with Our work impacts Māori nationally What do you suggest by way of engagement and what would you consider adequate in terms of engagement Oh, without knowing exactly what your work in Kaupapa and stuff is Bradley Hopefully you already have some Māori in your organisation perhaps in a governance area and start with them Without knowing your kaupapa start with the Māori you have and depending on whether your kaupapa is being run nationally all the time or there are some pockets across the country, then you may want to look at iwi who are located, mana whenua Māori who are located in those other areas and make sure that they're included in the national plans. I mean, national stuff is interesting and I think it relates to Māori as well as just general population New Zealand We hate the idea that everything gets dreamed up in one place For example, Wellington isn't a solution for everybody and Māori and it's the same for Māori as well So yeah Start with Māori who you've got and think about is our kaupapa actually affecting, we may be national, but is it actually affecting people in particular communities and if it is, should we be dropping into those communities for guidance and leadership around solutions that affect them Rebecca says great presentation and I think she's asking for a clarification as to whether or not when referring to collaborating or partnering with Māori given the Treaty, whether it's the word to use is collaborating or partnering I think I was talking about collaboration generally and I think some of the examples I gave were where iwi were collaborating and look, in Te Tiriti or Waitangi it's not partnership anyway, it's partnership is a palatable, I guess alternative that's used, but they do mean different things so what I was saying is work with people and when it comes, yeah work with people Frank asks if you'd be able to describe how Māori governance is different to European governance Probably lots of different ways, I mean in some ways depending on the organisation, it could be the way that governors are appointed over the entities perhaps sometimes by iwi members others appointed in different ways so the voices that put people in the roles of governance I think in some examples I've seen with Māori governance and these are probably iwi based not always iwi based, but kaupapa Māori based strategies are very very long term hundreds of years and the narratives that we draw on narratives from history often as a way to chart the future so we will draw on the lessons of our pre-European past and as markers for how we move forward, I think that's something different about Māori governance as well as terms of the way we look at strategy yeah those are probably two things for now thank you everybody, some great questions some tips that I hope will be helpful thanks for joining us today for this webinar which is part of a series around working with Māori that we're developing at Allan and Clark I've really enjoyed talking to you all ane no te mihi atu kia koutou kia tau ngā manaakitanga ki rungi a koutou katoa i o kainga maha, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou kia ora tatou katoa
