How Taiao Manawa Ora was implemented by Ngā Kaihoe
1. Te Tiriti o Waitangi is foundational to the design of place-based initiatives
Te Tiriti o Waitangi anchored Ngā Kaihoe decisions regarding partnership with Māori communities, participation of Māori communities and researchers, and protection of mātauranga and te taiao. The ability to make these decisions was enabled by tangata whenua leadership in the programme and tangata Tiriti growth in understanding Te Tiriti o Waitangi. For tangata Tiriti this included knowing how to have conversations around Te Tiriti and interact as a Te Tiriti partner.
Tangata Tiriti recognised Te Tiriti o Waitangi as very important for themselves and important for their work, and had increased confidence to apply Te Tiriti principles in other projects and aspects of their life. This confidence was gained through Te Tiriti training led by Te Kāhui Rau and tangata whenua sharing and providing opportunities to experience Te Tiriti in action.
2. Te taiao as a basis for change
Land use, management, value chains and market opportunities to revitalise te taiao was the primary concern for Ngā Kaihoe. This provided the ongoing motivation for working through opportunities and challenges with Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao to ensure their success. Te taiao provided an all-encompassing framing for thinking about success that highlighted the interconnected wellbeing of community, environment, and culture.
Ngā Kaihoe grew in their understanding and connection to te taiao in each of Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao through time together in Waikato-Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, and Wānaka and regular discussions of what success means to the farmers, community and whānau participating in Revitalise te Taiao.
3. Respecting all knowledges
Ngā Kaihoe was a group with diverse skills and experiences who brought multiple knowledges from te ao Māori and te ao Pākehā. Wānanga held within the programme, including on-farm and on-marae provided safe spaces for knowledge sharing, and included te reo Māori, tikanga Māori, and mātauranga Māori.
This respecting of all knowledges was anchored in Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles and motivated by the primary concern to revitalise te taiao: everyone’s knowledge is needed.
4. Tikanga and values
Taiao Manawa Ora (and the implementation of the 11 insights) and Tūhono Mauri Ora, our communication and engagement strategy, provided the tikanga and values for Ngā Kaihoe. When Ngā Kaihoe experienced challenges Taiao Manawa Ora was used to assess alternative actions to address these challenges.
This was supported by Ngā Kaihoe discussing and sharing what each of the 11 insights meant to them. This expanded individual and collective understanding of the 11 insights and what they meant to the programme.
5. People and community-led change
Community-led change involves enduring, future-focused change, with communities deciding themselves what changes must be made to revitalise te taiao. This was important for Ngā Kaihoe because Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao have the deepest knowledge of what is best for te taiao in their places.
This reflects that communities, farmers, and whānau live and breathe te taiao every day and communities feel responsibility for te taiao when they can say something about changes. This recognises the centrality of people and community in knowledge generation and research to revitalise te taiao in their places.
6. People and place – a sense of place, belonging, and wellbeing
Ngā Kaihoe placed a high priority on connecting and spending time with Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao in their places. This led Ngā Kaihoe to grow their relationships with the communities, farmers and whānua and places in Waikato-Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, and Wānaka.
This was achieved through multiple visits to Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao and regular invitations from Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao to spend time and learn about their places. This enabled Ngā Kaihoe to support Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao to revitalise te taiao, by deepening our understanding of their places and communities.
7. Collaboration and participation
For Ngā Kaihoe, participation and collaboration was based on bringing out each other’s strength and potential, working together from the start until the end, and connecting through te taiao.
The essential elements for collaboration and participation were prioritising collective goals, thinking about others, establishing tikanga to make sure that everyone is starting from the same place, and respecting and protecting each other. It is also important to recognise that whenua, awa, and moana are participants in the collaboration. To encourage collaboration and participation it was important to recognise that whanaungatanga doesn’t have time constraints and deadlines shouldn’t distract from prioritising collaboration and participation.
8. Leadership and management (mana rangatira/mana whakahaere)
Leadership wasn’t centralised, but was found in numerous and diverse peoples, places, and connections. For Ngā Kaihoe, key attributes of leadership and management included many elements of Taiao Manawa Ora:
- Always seeing the potential in people and drawing this out.
- Caring for people. For example, checking in with Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao on expectations, and providing supporting during challenging times.
- Having a connection to both people and place (See insight 6: People and place).
- Remaining grounded in tikanga and values (See insight 4: Tikanga and values).
- Drawing different strands of knowledge and experience together to collaborate (See insight 3: Respecting all knowledges).
9. Broader measures of success
Ngā Kaihoe measured success in as many ways as possible. There were the typical measures of project success, such as delivering milestones on time and to budget. Other areas of success were also prioritised, including:
- Establishing and sustaining relationships with each other and with places. These relationships encouraged knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of each other and the places we are connected to.
- Growing those individuals involved in the project, especially in relation to te reo and tikanga (increased confidence in tikanga and the kaupapa).
- Having a space where te reo was actively used and promoted.
10. Interconnected solutions
Motivated by the revitalisation of te taiao, the focus of Ngā Kaihoe was on interconnected solutions that bring people together, rather than solely interconnected technical solutions. Relationships were therefore a large component of Revitalise te Taiao, with an emphasis on building connections among people.
For example, the farmer engagement lead from Rere Ki Uta Rere Ki Tai visited Taranaki and Wānaka to support the other Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao in developing skills in visual soil assessments.
11. Access to resources
People (within Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao, in the wider programme, and contacts of those within the programme) were seen as a key resource and drawn on within Revitalise te Taiao.
While funding and time are important resources that are needed within programmes like Revitalise te Taiao, and more of these are always helpful, having time for whanaungatanga and planning at the start of the programme is needed to enable effective utilisation of funding and time.