Kotahitanga
Building a sense of unity and shared vision that enables collective decision-making and actions towards diverse whenua Māori.
“That's really important, that ability to navigate you know the notion of collectivity and being able to navigate to that space. Right? I'm quite determined, change happens when that level of cooperation and complementarity happens when you can bring people together around a common interest, because we are different.” (Pūkenga5)
“I think within Te Pū, there are so many women who work with the land, they plant, they grow, they do, and I think, yeah, each one of them gives strength to all the other members.” (Pūkenga9)
Thriving community
A community thriving across all domains – socially, culturally, environmentally and economically – underpinned by strong connections with each other and the whenua. Diverse income opportunities generate a sustainable economy, in relationship with whenua, and profits are shared within the community.
“I think land decision makers could enable those other things to be met without economics, like … retiring areas or allowing for homes, you know? Or what with some planning, you could … actually get a better detailed way of working out what is productive you know? What is productive and then what isn't. And then how can the bits that aren't, better serve these other co-benefit type aspirations? You know, like, even if we did a four-wheel drive trail once a year for whānau who don't live here but whakapapa here … like we did that actually at one of our family reunions, and they loved it because … for them it's about being on their whenua. Not just coming back to the marae, which is special too, but … that's what I mean about the spectrum. There can be, you know, frequent or planned experiences like that through to … other things like restoration projects.” (Pūkenga3)
Weaving knowledges
The capability to utilise western science tools and understandings, alongside te ao Māori values, mātauranga, and tikanga.
“Even though I had a science background, it was starting to blend with a feeling of who I was … and so my whole mentality started to switch about how do I balance the Western science paradigms with, with mātauranga Māori, and my Māori sense of who I was? So that set me on the journey of actually examining our farm more intensely.” (Pūkenga5)
Papatūānuku
Papatūānuku represents the land, the Earth Mother of all things, from who all animals, plants and humans are born and nourished.
“They turned to me and they said, ‘why do you want to be the chair [of the land trust]?’ I said, "to bring more aroha and connection to the land. I want us to succeed in a way that our people come back and bond with the land again." Well, I got the job right? And so that's how I started. And on that whole concept that was meaningful to me even though I had a science background, I was starting to blend with a feeling of who I was. Ko au te whenua, ko te whenua ko au, I am the land and the land is me. And I understood the meaning of whenua, not just as land, but as the placenta of Papatūānuku.” (Pūkenga5)
Tikanga
Traditional and contemporary practices and protocols determine how to work with whenua and relate to each other.
“It's really just about taking the time to have the right people out with me, hear the expressions of what has occurred in certain places. You know, there's a lot of tikanga and kawa associated with whenua Māori, so karakia every morning, karakia every evening, before and after getting on the whenua. Certain rituals in between, if I got to a place where I felt certain energy, I would do karakia or sing a waiata or whatever I felt needed to be done in order to feel protected. And then I would always go back to some of our key aunties and uncles, who have lived at home their whole life, to debrief that experience with them … And so now when people come and want to come on their whenua, I take them. They go, ‘go with [Pūkenga6] because she knows, and she's cleared whatever needs to be cleared for her, and whoever's with her, to be safe’.” (Pūkenga6)
Effective governance
Strategic leadership through governance structures that are set up to motivate and drive values-based change in ways that produce collective and equitable outcomes.
“You … can deal with some pretty messy situations if you've got … wise leadership in some places that know how to manage and navigate that, and [are] good at conflict resolution, good at thinking through, taking people on journeys, so that rangatiratanga, you know, means to weave together, weave people together, that kind of capability is crucial. So, if you don't have that, that's a big constraint. And you overcome it through building good leadership that weaves people together. Rangatiratanga.” (Pūkenga2)
Empowered tāngata
Engaged tāngata (inclusive of rangatahi, wāhine, kaumātua) living in connection with each other and their whenua, who are well-resourced and equipped with the necessary skills (technical, social, emotional) to make informed decisions and prioritise strategic actions on their whenua.
“So, what I've found with … going and sitting with people, often even just having the opportunity of the wānanga to say, look, we're coming … can we talk to you about whatever. It's the opportunity so that they can come together. They might see each other in those Māori communities. They might see each other, you know, doing different things. But it's the bringing a focus so that they're just talking about Māori land. And over the years I've held … wānanga … and … I've got nothing to tell them in terms of their land. They know it the best, but it's just giving them the space to come together and share and exchange information. I've watched some really big stories.” (Pūkenga10)
Trusting relationships
Building trusting relationships within whānau, hapū, iwi and with external organisations, such as councils, is important. It can take time to process and move through historical injustices.
“I think the trust is a big one as well. You know, with our whānau, you've got to ahh, not prove yourself, but like there's so many people that are like all waha no kaha, like all hui no do-y, that often people come into a space of Māori and promise a lot and aren't willing to actually take the time to build the relationships, to do the mahi and do it … with humility. And that's one thing that I definitely learnt … it's not about showcasing what you're doing. It's just about doing it and inviting people along the journey because, you know, by the end of that period of time … everyone trusted me because they knew that I really, genuinely cared. … Like I felt so connected to the whenua and what it was telling me that I was really just a vessel. And I think that the wairua of that was what people felt. And so the relationship was so much stronger because the interest was … for our whenua and what it needed and what I could do to serve those needs. And I'd say that that was definitely critical to building trust.” (Pūkenga6)
Secure resourcing
Reliable built-infrastructure and secure access to ongoing and flexible funding, in order to action and sustain long-term plans.
“We have a trust that we've worked with that wouldn't have been able to access funding ... because they don't have cash flow. So current funding, you do the mahi, you get the consultants, who aren't cheap, and you pay them before you claim from MPI … and then you might be waiting up to two months to get reimbursed for that. Now a smaller trust can't afford that. The larger ones ... already have capital ... already have capability. But the smaller trusts, the 50 hectares … this is the difference in transforming that change. How do we navigate those barriers to get them participating? And so for several projects, Te Pū Oranga Whenua have become the carrier as the main service provider, we'll subcontract so that the work can get done. And then we get the wash up. And it might be six months down the track before we get a return. But we've been fortunate to build resources where we can do this. And then the next funding round that whānau have the capacity to do their thing. … And so we've kind of shifted back to that … collectivising scale, to get participation, to move from being aspiration conversation to getting shit done.” (Pūkenga7)
Mātauranga Māori
Intergenerational pursuit and application of knowledge, developed through living in close affinity with place, and underpinned by te ao Māori worldview and values.
“There's no point learning tikanga from it, or mātauranga from a piece of literature, because it means nothing to me. I have to go home and learn that from my own people, from my own place, because it's so unique to who you are and where you're from … And that's a whole lifetime journey that I'm on, you know? There's so many different facets to that. But yeah, being on whenua Māori with whanau I think was critical to, yeah, truly embodying that stuff. So it wasn't in here [points to head] that understanding and knowledge wasn't in here, but it was in here [points to chest] and in my puku. And so now I can make those decisions and guide with those parts of myself rather than here [points to head], which is where we sort of taught to think and operate from in a Western science lens. And I do both every day.” (Pūkenga6)
Mana motuhake
The authority, derived through whakapapa, to exercise self-determination as tangata whenua. In this context, mana motuhake refers to having autonomy as Māori landowners to make decisions over their own whenua.
“The ceiling is always there for Māori not being able to reach their potential. You know, in a system … we can do as much as we can, we can be as proactive as we can, but if we keep getting stuff thrown at us, there's only a certain amount you can take. … One of the greatest micro fixes that we have is … bringing us back to who we are, what we know and who we are and where we come from. Acknowledging that and living in that power. You know, if you have purpose in life that can take you so far … So yeah, it's a combination of both micro and macro fixes. But really … the macro ones will be the ability to break the ceiling above us and have the ability to live our true mana motuhake.” (Pūkenga1)
Healing
(Re)connection with whenua and identity as tangata whenua provide a conduit for healing from past and ongoing impacts of colonial trauma.
“We want to create a healing place for everyone. Getting back to the land and working it benefits not only us but also brings in the children, as we've got a lot of tamariki down there too.” (Pūkenga4)
“Getting your land back heals you. So, we talk about the reconnection, because out of all the things that we've been able to do in the last ten years, that is the most significant.” (Pūkenga1)
Te ao Māori
The context for all things, starting with te ao Māori creation story of Ranginui (Sky Father) and Papatūānuku (Earth Mother), which underpins the relational and metaphysical connectivity between people and all living and non-living beings.
“I so strongly feel that te ao Māori has our solutions for the problems we face. I believe that the re-emergence of all Indigenous knowledge systems is actually the only way forward. I strongly believe that. And in adopting those values and those ways of being and doing and working, I think we're better going to serve the needs of our environment and our communities.” (Pūkenga6)
“I think a lot of an indigenous worldview, of course, sees everything as sentient and certainly a place as being sentient. Those sort of deep connected relationships to a sentient place. And the development of environmental consciousness is fairly fundamental … I think that's first and foremost to any form of transformation.” (Pūkenga2)
Kaitiakitanga
Rights and responsibilities of tangata whenua to enact stewardship of the natural environment, in relationship with ngā atua (spiritual deities) and tūpuna.
“What does it actually mean to actively be a good kaitiaki? What does kaitiaki actually mean? Am I the kaitiaki, or is awa kaitiaki, or is the maunga kaitiaki? Actually questioning all of that. Like, I still, I'm putting myself, like I'm superior and ‘my river and my mountain need me to look after them,’ you know?” (Pūkenga8)
“Right now, our whenua just needs us to care for it. We can't take from our whenua until it's thriving. And at the moment it's actually really struggling. So, if we're going to invest in developing eco-commercial activities and changing our land use, we need to be putting equal, if not more, investment into protecting and restoring what we have because it can't take anymore. So, we put ourselves at risk of this not being regenerative and sustainable.” (Pūkenga6)
Manaakitanga
Reciprocal environmental and community wellbeing through (re)vitalising cultural practices (e.g. living marae, mahinga kai practices), deepening ancestral connections to place.
“And so we're only as strong as the whenua, that interconnectedness ... And, when we think collective, it flows on to our whānau, hapū, iwi, te ao. So yeah, it's always being mindful of that and not being able to put down that korowai of collectiveness. The reality of what our society was built on. It was built on that. Māori were here way before this individualistic ideology came along, this whenua was built on collective connection back to the whenua. And I mean, it's in the name manaaki whenua. You know, if we don't manaaki the whenua first.” (Pūkenga1)
Whakapapa
Māori understandings of whenua are relational, indivisible, and stem from whakapapa (genealogy, layers), which situates who they are in relationship to the natural world, as well as human relationships.
“So I know it's our whakapapa, but what does that actually mean when, that's a mountain, that's our mountain that you're talking about? That’s our awa. It's actually a real living landscape, you know, and that's your whenua, yeah? And those are our, your people. But how do we contribute to each other? How do we, how do we tiaki each other? How do we tiaki our maunga? How do we tiaki our awa. And I think that's that disconnection … as people we, you know, prioritise ourselves over our maunga, and our awa, and our whenua, even though pepeha is so important, you know, that whole metaphor hasn't just come up out of nothing. It's because … originally we depended so much on our environment because you'd die otherwise, you wouldn't survive. So yeah, that's been really important.” (Pūkenga8)
Challenging regulations
Navigating and overcoming bureaucratic and regulatory hurdles, and inequitable norms e.g. finding ways to access bank loans for Māori Land Trusts, challenging council rates.
“I ring the council to see what is happening in the Māori land realm and see how they are helping. So yeah, it's hard even as far as rates are concerned. So, I sat in the council for, oh, six months having meetings about the rates because … we've got no septic, we've got no sewerage, there's no water. They didn't supply water. They didn't give us power. They don't pick up our rubbish. They don't do anything for us. And they were, I think, the rates up where we are it's around about $3,000 for a home. … So, I got some guy in to take photos, aerial photos of the unusable land … and it was quite substantial … maybe 15 hectare that couldn't be used. And so that means that the rates drop down because it's unusable land. … So I sat there for six months until they did me a rates remission.”(Pūkenga9)
Flourishing mauri
The internal life force of all living and non-living things, derived from whakapapa. Mauri binds physical and spiritual worlds, and recognises co-dependency between human and environmental wellbeing.
“When all of your narratives and stories and traditions are all embedded and wedded to … the natural world … even your songs represent the natural world, then anything that leads to its re-establishment and its mauri being enhanced, and the restoration of the mana of the streams that are your tupuna, … that are your ancestors and close family relations, that's also a healing journey. I mean, healing the lands, healing the people … they're interwoven.” (Pūkenga2)
Disrupting systems
The strength, motivation, and vision to 'disrupt systems' – to identify and push for alternative ways that better suit whenua Māori.
“We have a level of Māori leadership that influences, and that's not to takahē that space, but there comes a time when you've got to stop, pause, and ask if that's the best direction for our smaller trusts. When I sit in this space and see the smaller trust value in our domestic story, and Te Pū is about our domestic story, because we've got all this flash stuff going overseas, yet I've got to pay nearly $10 for a pound of butter that gets made down the road here in Manawatū. That's a little bit mental. It doesn't make sense. And yet, if we collectivise the local, smaller land use and developed our own regional kai sovereignty stories, then there's a different return. It's a short supply chain. And these smaller trusts don't have to carry this debt or this loss of cash flow indefinitely.” (Pūkenga7)
Ahi kā
Representing the 'everyday hīkoi' of those whānau living on and caring for the whenua. This keeps the home fires burning, maintaining ancestral connections to the whenua, and enabling other whānau members, who do not live on the whenua, to return intermittently, or in the future.
“I just want to come home because this is what it meant to me to be in sync with this kōrero … to be doing, living, practically living Toitū Te Tiriti means to be home and actively participating. Piki, heke, you know? Ups and downs on the ground at my pā and on my whenua, so, and I just didn't want to be part of the whole urban living … I don't want to fit in anywhere else … I want to go home … So we've just been ahi kā with all the great, the blessings and the curses of that.” (Pūkenga8)
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Transcript
Kotahitanga
Building a sense of unity and shared vision that enables collective decision-making and actions towards diverse whenua Māori.
“That's really important, that ability to navigate you know the notion of collectivity and being able to navigate to that space. Right? I'm quite determined, change happens when that level of cooperation and complementarity happens when you can bring people together around a common interest, because we are different.” (Pūkenga5)
“I think within Te Pū, there are so many women who work with the land, they plant, they grow, they do, and I think, yeah, each one of them gives strength to all the other members.” (Pūkenga9)
Thriving community
A community thriving across all domains – socially, culturally, environmentally and economically – underpinned by strong connections with each other and the whenua. Diverse income opportunities generate a sustainable economy, in relationship with whenua, and profits are shared within the community.
“I think land decision makers could enable those other things to be met without economics, like … retiring areas or allowing for homes, you know? Or what with some planning, you could … actually get a better detailed way of working out what is productive you know? What is productive and then what isn't. And then how can the bits that aren't, better serve these other co-benefit type aspirations? You know, like, even if we did a four-wheel drive trail once a year for whānau who don't live here but whakapapa here … like we did that actually at one of our family reunions, and they loved it because … for them it's about being on their whenua. Not just coming back to the marae, which is special too, but … that's what I mean about the spectrum. There can be, you know, frequent or planned experiences like that through to … other things like restoration projects.” (Pūkenga3)
Weaving knowledges
The capability to utilise western science tools and understandings, alongside te ao Māori values, mātauranga, and tikanga.
“Even though I had a science background, it was starting to blend with a feeling of who I was … and so my whole mentality started to switch about how do I balance the Western science paradigms with, with mātauranga Māori, and my Māori sense of who I was? So that set me on the journey of actually examining our farm more intensely.” (Pūkenga5)
Papatūānuku
Papatūānuku represents the land, the Earth Mother of all things, from who all animals, plants and humans are born and nourished.
“They turned to me and they said, ‘why do you want to be the chair [of the land trust]?’ I said, "to bring more aroha and connection to the land. I want us to succeed in a way that our people come back and bond with the land again." Well, I got the job right? And so that's how I started. And on that whole concept that was meaningful to me even though I had a science background, I was starting to blend with a feeling of who I was. Ko au te whenua, ko te whenua ko au, I am the land and the land is me. And I understood the meaning of whenua, not just as land, but as the placenta of Papatūānuku.” (Pūkenga5)
Tikanga
Traditional and contemporary practices and protocols determine how to work with whenua and relate to each other.
“It's really just about taking the time to have the right people out with me, hear the expressions of what has occurred in certain places. You know, there's a lot of tikanga and kawa associated with whenua Māori, so karakia every morning, karakia every evening, before and after getting on the whenua. Certain rituals in between, if I got to a place where I felt certain energy, I would do karakia or sing a waiata or whatever I felt needed to be done in order to feel protected. And then I would always go back to some of our key aunties and uncles, who have lived at home their whole life, to debrief that experience with them … And so now when people come and want to come on their whenua, I take them. They go, ‘go with [Pūkenga6] because she knows, and she's cleared whatever needs to be cleared for her, and whoever's with her, to be safe’.” (Pūkenga6)
Effective governance
Strategic leadership through governance structures that are set up to motivate and drive values-based change in ways that produce collective and equitable outcomes.
“You … can deal with some pretty messy situations if you've got … wise leadership in some places that know how to manage and navigate that, and [are] good at conflict resolution, good at thinking through, taking people on journeys, so that rangatiratanga, you know, means to weave together, weave people together, that kind of capability is crucial. So, if you don't have that, that's a big constraint. And you overcome it through building good leadership that weaves people together. Rangatiratanga.” (Pūkenga2)
Empowered tāngata
Engaged tāngata (inclusive of rangatahi, wāhine, kaumātua) living in connection with each other and their whenua, who are well-resourced and equipped with the necessary skills (technical, social, emotional) to make informed decisions and prioritise strategic actions on their whenua.
“So, what I've found with … going and sitting with people, often even just having the opportunity of the wānanga to say, look, we're coming … can we talk to you about whatever. It's the opportunity so that they can come together. They might see each other in those Māori communities. They might see each other, you know, doing different things. But it's the bringing a focus so that they're just talking about Māori land. And over the years I've held … wānanga … and … I've got nothing to tell them in terms of their land. They know it the best, but it's just giving them the space to come together and share and exchange information. I've watched some really big stories.” (Pūkenga10)
Trusting relationships
Building trusting relationships within whānau, hapū, iwi and with external organisations, such as councils, is important. It can take time to process and move through historical injustices.
“I think the trust is a big one as well. You know, with our whānau, you've got to ahh, not prove yourself, but like there's so many people that are like all waha no kaha, like all hui no do-y, that often people come into a space of Māori and promise a lot and aren't willing to actually take the time to build the relationships, to do the mahi and do it … with humility. And that's one thing that I definitely learnt … it's not about showcasing what you're doing. It's just about doing it and inviting people along the journey because, you know, by the end of that period of time … everyone trusted me because they knew that I really, genuinely cared. … Like I felt so connected to the whenua and what it was telling me that I was really just a vessel. And I think that the wairua of that was what people felt. And so the relationship was so much stronger because the interest was … for our whenua and what it needed and what I could do to serve those needs. And I'd say that that was definitely critical to building trust.” (Pūkenga6)
Secure resourcing
Reliable built-infrastructure and secure access to ongoing and flexible funding, in order to action and sustain long-term plans.
“We have a trust that we've worked with that wouldn't have been able to access funding ... because they don't have cash flow. So current funding, you do the mahi, you get the consultants, who aren't cheap, and you pay them before you claim from MPI … and then you might be waiting up to two months to get reimbursed for that. Now a smaller trust can't afford that. The larger ones ... already have capital ... already have capability. But the smaller trusts, the 50 hectares … this is the difference in transforming that change. How do we navigate those barriers to get them participating? And so for several projects, Te Pū Oranga Whenua have become the carrier as the main service provider, we'll subcontract so that the work can get done. And then we get the wash up. And it might be six months down the track before we get a return. But we've been fortunate to build resources where we can do this. And then the next funding round that whānau have the capacity to do their thing. … And so we've kind of shifted back to that … collectivising scale, to get participation, to move from being aspiration conversation to getting shit done.” (Pūkenga7)
Mātauranga Māori
Intergenerational pursuit and application of knowledge, developed through living in close affinity with place, and underpinned by te ao Māori worldview and values.
“There's no point learning tikanga from it, or mātauranga from a piece of literature, because it means nothing to me. I have to go home and learn that from my own people, from my own place, because it's so unique to who you are and where you're from … And that's a whole lifetime journey that I'm on, you know? There's so many different facets to that. But yeah, being on whenua Māori with whanau I think was critical to, yeah, truly embodying that stuff. So it wasn't in here [points to head] that understanding and knowledge wasn't in here, but it was in here [points to chest] and in my puku. And so now I can make those decisions and guide with those parts of myself rather than here [points to head], which is where we sort of taught to think and operate from in a Western science lens. And I do both every day.” (Pūkenga6)
Mana motuhake
The authority, derived through whakapapa, to exercise self-determination as tangata whenua. In this context, mana motuhake refers to having autonomy as Māori landowners to make decisions over their own whenua.
“The ceiling is always there for Māori not being able to reach their potential. You know, in a system … we can do as much as we can, we can be as proactive as we can, but if we keep getting stuff thrown at us, there's only a certain amount you can take. … One of the greatest micro fixes that we have is … bringing us back to who we are, what we know and who we are and where we come from. Acknowledging that and living in that power. You know, if you have purpose in life that can take you so far … So yeah, it's a combination of both micro and macro fixes. But really … the macro ones will be the ability to break the ceiling above us and have the ability to live our true mana motuhake.” (Pūkenga1)
Healing
(Re)connection with whenua and identity as tangata whenua provide a conduit for healing from past and ongoing impacts of colonial trauma.
“We want to create a healing place for everyone. Getting back to the land and working it benefits not only us but also brings in the children, as we've got a lot of tamariki down there too.” (Pūkenga4)
“Getting your land back heals you. So, we talk about the reconnection, because out of all the things that we've been able to do in the last ten years, that is the most significant.” (Pūkenga1)
Te ao Māori
The context for all things, starting with te ao Māori creation story of Ranginui (Sky Father) and Papatūānuku (Earth Mother), which underpins the relational and metaphysical connectivity between people and all living and non-living beings.
“I so strongly feel that te ao Māori has our solutions for the problems we face. I believe that the re-emergence of all Indigenous knowledge systems is actually the only way forward. I strongly believe that. And in adopting those values and those ways of being and doing and working, I think we're better going to serve the needs of our environment and our communities.” (Pūkenga6)
“I think a lot of an indigenous worldview, of course, sees everything as sentient and certainly a place as being sentient. Those sort of deep connected relationships to a sentient place. And the development of environmental consciousness is fairly fundamental … I think that's first and foremost to any form of transformation.” (Pūkenga2)
Kaitiakitanga
Rights and responsibilities of tangata whenua to enact stewardship of the natural environment, in relationship with ngā atua (spiritual deities) and tūpuna.
“What does it actually mean to actively be a good kaitiaki? What does kaitiaki actually mean? Am I the kaitiaki, or is awa kaitiaki, or is the maunga kaitiaki? Actually questioning all of that. Like, I still, I'm putting myself, like I'm superior and ‘my river and my mountain need me to look after them,’ you know?” (Pūkenga8)
“Right now, our whenua just needs us to care for it. We can't take from our whenua until it's thriving. And at the moment it's actually really struggling. So, if we're going to invest in developing eco-commercial activities and changing our land use, we need to be putting equal, if not more, investment into protecting and restoring what we have because it can't take anymore. So, we put ourselves at risk of this not being regenerative and sustainable.” (Pūkenga6)
Manaakitanga
Reciprocal environmental and community wellbeing through (re)vitalising cultural practices (e.g. living marae, mahinga kai practices), deepening ancestral connections to place.
“And so we're only as strong as the whenua, that interconnectedness ... And, when we think collective, it flows on to our whānau, hapū, iwi, te ao. So yeah, it's always being mindful of that and not being able to put down that korowai of collectiveness. The reality of what our society was built on. It was built on that. Māori were here way before this individualistic ideology came along, this whenua was built on collective connection back to the whenua. And I mean, it's in the name manaaki whenua. You know, if we don't manaaki the whenua first.” (Pūkenga1)
Whakapapa
Māori understandings of whenua are relational, indivisible, and stem from whakapapa (genealogy, layers), which situates who they are in relationship to the natural world, as well as human relationships.
“So I know it's our whakapapa, but what does that actually mean when, that's a mountain, that's our mountain that you're talking about? That’s our awa. It's actually a real living landscape, you know, and that's your whenua, yeah? And those are our, your people. But how do we contribute to each other? How do we, how do we tiaki each other? How do we tiaki our maunga? How do we tiaki our awa. And I think that's that disconnection … as people we, you know, prioritise ourselves over our maunga, and our awa, and our whenua, even though pepeha is so important, you know, that whole metaphor hasn't just come up out of nothing. It's because … originally we depended so much on our environment because you'd die otherwise, you wouldn't survive. So yeah, that's been really important.” (Pūkenga8)
Challenging regulations
Navigating and overcoming bureaucratic and regulatory hurdles, and inequitable norms e.g. finding ways to access bank loans for Māori Land Trusts, challenging council rates.
“I ring the council to see what is happening in the Māori land realm and see how they are helping. So yeah, it's hard even as far as rates are concerned. So, I sat in the council for, oh, six months having meetings about the rates because … we've got no septic, we've got no sewerage, there's no water. They didn't supply water. They didn't give us power. They don't pick up our rubbish. They don't do anything for us. And they were, I think, the rates up where we are it's around about $3,000 for a home. … So, I got some guy in to take photos, aerial photos of the unusable land … and it was quite substantial … maybe 15 hectare that couldn't be used. And so that means that the rates drop down because it's unusable land. … So I sat there for six months until they did me a rates remission.”(Pūkenga9)
Flourishing mauri
The internal life force of all living and non-living things, derived from whakapapa. Mauri binds physical and spiritual worlds, and recognises co-dependency between human and environmental wellbeing.
“When all of your narratives and stories and traditions are all embedded and wedded to … the natural world … even your songs represent the natural world, then anything that leads to its re-establishment and its mauri being enhanced, and the restoration of the mana of the streams that are your tupuna, … that are your ancestors and close family relations, that's also a healing journey. I mean, healing the lands, healing the people … they're interwoven.” (Pūkenga2)
Disrupting systems
The strength, motivation, and vision to 'disrupt systems' – to identify and push for alternative ways that better suit whenua Māori.
“We have a level of Māori leadership that influences, and that's not to takahē that space, but there comes a time when you've got to stop, pause, and ask if that's the best direction for our smaller trusts. When I sit in this space and see the smaller trust value in our domestic story, and Te Pū is about our domestic story, because we've got all this flash stuff going overseas, yet I've got to pay nearly $10 for a pound of butter that gets made down the road here in Manawatū. That's a little bit mental. It doesn't make sense. And yet, if we collectivise the local, smaller land use and developed our own regional kai sovereignty stories, then there's a different return. It's a short supply chain. And these smaller trusts don't have to carry this debt or this loss of cash flow indefinitely.” (Pūkenga7)
Ahi kā
Representing the 'everyday hīkoi' of those whānau living on and caring for the whenua. This keeps the home fires burning, maintaining ancestral connections to the whenua, and enabling other whānau members, who do not live on the whenua, to return intermittently, or in the future.
“I just want to come home because this is what it meant to me to be in sync with this kōrero … to be doing, living, practically living Toitū Te Tiriti means to be home and actively participating. Piki, heke, you know? Ups and downs on the ground at my pā and on my whenua, so, and I just didn't want to be part of the whole urban living … I don't want to fit in anywhere else … I want to go home … So we've just been ahi kā with all the great, the blessings and the curses of that.” (Pūkenga8)