Realising Māori Potential through Whānau

Speaker

Dale Karauria

Organisation

Te Puni Kōkiri

Te Puni Kōkiri's strategic outcome as a Policy ministry is Māori succeeding as Māori. This outcome statement has driven a clear distinction between the work that Te Puni Kōkiri undertakes, and that of other government agencies in respect of Māori. In order to complement the work of other agencies, while at the same time providing the Government with advice that is both sourced and constructed differently from those other agencies, Te Puni Kōkiri relies upon a network of offices closely involved with Māori communities, and focuses thought a strengths based approach of realising potential on the cultural structures, utility and benefits of being Māori.

This positioning in the public policy market has the practical effect of emphasising Māori specific outcomes, leaving the universal outcomes of citizenship largely the preserve of mainstream agencies. Put simply, the challenge for Te Puni Kōkiri is to work with Māori in their collectively based, community oriented cultural constructs of whānau, hapu and iwi; while relying on mainstream agencies in general, and sector agencies in particular to attend to the interests and needs of Māori as individuals. In this way, Te Puni Kōkiri is pursuing an and/and approach of Māori as indigenous collectives and Māori as individual New Zealand citizens.

Whānau Development: Action and Research is designed to advance these Māori specific interests both in terms of working with iwi and Māori organisations to co-produce Māori outcomes; and in terms of focusing on whānau as the locus of decision making for the whānau as a collective, for the whānau as the context for its individual members, and for the whānau as the basic building block of iwi, hapu and Māori communities. To this end, Whānau Development: Action and Research has a double agenda of building the capability of iwi and Māori organisations as the primary interface with their whānau through developing the Te Puni Kōkiri model of co-production; and researching and developing policy that whānau based, whānau responsive and whānau measurable.

The Māori Potential Approach is the policy framework that guides this research, design and testing work. It is grounded in three positive and culturally affirming principles that Māori are multi-dimensional, diverse and capable. Whānau Development: Action and Research extrapolates these principles to the Māori collectives of iwi at the governance and management level, and whānau at the functional and experiential level. Investigation of this approach is at the inceptive stage with one year of exploration completed and the second upon us now.