Ngā Kaihoe - Support team
Ngā Kaihoe made substantial progress from their first official gathering in April 2021 at Te Mānuka Tūtahi marae in Whakatāne. A working group led by Dr James Turner, Simon Stokes, and Richard Te Hurinui Jones (Ngāti Maniapoto, Rangitāne o Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua, Te Arawa) initially developed the ‘Revitalise te Taiao’ place-based research programme. Te taiao underpins kaitiakitanga. Environmental stewardship and documenting a commitment to environmental care differentiates products from Aotearoa-New Zealand in the global markets. This adds value to Aotearoa-New Zealand’s primary products overseas where consumers are increasingly concerned about sustainability issues.
The research programme is led by and centred on mana whenua, communities, and agribusinesses who are working to revitalise te taiao. A key achievement has been engaging in a process of collaboration with a range of people with diverse views to come up with a framework for selecting and facilitating pilot studies. The success of Ngā Kaihoe extends beyond the revitalisation of te taiao in agribusinesses and rural communities. The principles they have collaborated on are based around Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The principles of partnership, participation, and protection between tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti will be valuable for other important dialogues in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Additionally these principles not only apply between people, but also between people and the whenua. If you work in partnership with, and participate and protect the whenua, then the whenua will reciprocate. This is embodied in te ao Māori kōrero "Ko Au te Whenua, Ko te Whenua ko Au" (I am the land and the land is me).
How was Taiao Manawa Ora implemented by Ngā Kaihoe?

The Taiao Manawa Ora model guides this research programme. Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the inter-relationship of values, knowledge, and worldviews of tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti are at the centre. The outer ‘wings’ highlight the differences, and show connection across cultures to gather and share information as we move along our te taiao pathway.
Taiao Manawa Ora guided work to revitalise te taiao
Taiao Manawa Ora and the 11 insights were valued by Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao and Ngā Kaihoe for guiding efforts to revitalise te taiao. The 11 insights were identified in action in each Nga Kaiurungi Taiao to some extent. There was also growth in the extent to which the insights were implemented during the life of the programme. For example, with tangata Tiriti growing their understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Each Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao emphasised different insights and expressed them in different ways. However, Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi is foundational), and insights related to relationships and connections (Respecting all knowledges, People and place, and Collaboration and participation) were frequently highlighted. This emphasised the centrality of people and community to knowledge growth and holistic approaches to revitalise te taiao.
Explore our Kōkiri ki uta, Kōkiri ki tai, and Tauhere mai to see how we implemented Taiao Manawa Ora.
Murray Hemi (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Te Aitanga a Kupe), Mātanga Mātauranga Māori Scientist, was one of the 25 people in the working group, and wove the 11 Insights and working group kōrero into Taiao Manawa Ora. Having been instrumental in the mahi to co-develop the insights, Murray provided his reflections about Ngā Kaiurungi Taiao at the half-way point of Revitalise Te Taiao in May 2023.

Papatohu mahi - Work dashboards
The programme used a dashboard that allowed the project hypotheses, outcomes, outputs and measures to be tracked for progress.
This enabled the four different research proposals to be assessed as a collective group against the core project scope, which was to see land use and land management change creating opportunities for new value chains and markets whilst revitalising te taiao.
The progress was also tracked against the key indicators from the working group, outlined in the 11 insights and Taiao Manawa Ora.
This is an innovative approach to show progress not just in relation to contractual milestones, but against the research programme kaupapa and key areas of emphasis for change. It ensured that we tracked challenging areas like Te Tiriti o Waitangi, people involvement, whairawa (investment), and a land-use focus.
Of the 114 work areas tracked, 89% were complete.