We are engaged in a range of environmental activities. The kaupapa that drives everything we do as a Company is our commitment to increase the participation of whanau members in environmental research and management activities.
For every project we are contracted to undertake, we seek to provide opportunities for Māori to participate as researchers, as fieldworkers, as cultural advisor’s and/or as whanau support. We have two spheres of activity:
For every project we are contracted to undertake, we seek to provide opportunities for Māori to participate as researchers, as fieldworkers, as cultural advisor’s and/or as whanau support. We have two spheres of activity:
Research Interests
- Promoting and implementing co-governance arrangements that deliver outcomes for Māori.
- Researching what collaborative management means in a New Zealand context, and implementing relationships that deliver outcomes for Maori.
- Undertaking research that investigates linkages between environmental condition, economic development and the health and well-being of Maori.
- Exploring the interface of Matauranga Maori and “Western Science”.
- Working with whanau to prepare Cultural Values Reports, CIAs and restoration plans etc.
Current Research Projects
- River flows and allocation – as part of NIWA’s Sustainable Water and Allocation Programme.
- Ngai Kete o te Wananga – utilising both matauranga Maori and western science in freshwater management
- Cultural Keystone Species – a NIWA led programme that is funded by MBIE
- Ngai Pae o Maramatanga as part of the Te Aho Tapu programme
- Our land and water NSC.
Research Projects over the last five years
- Traditional and contemporary patterns of mahinga kai (food gathering) behaviours.
- Identifying the contaminants in kai awa, kai roto and kai moana (wild sourced foods).
- Developing tools that identify, order, assess and address the issues, from a cultural perspective, associated with aquatic environments and their restoration.
- Developing a Customary Fisheries Coastal Health Assessment Framework (FRST funded TTW research programme).
- Improving Maori health and well-being through kaitiakitanga.
- Assessing the social and cultural benefits of facilitating Maori participation in environmental management.
- Health through Maori Community Development.
- Developing a Cultural Health index for Maori to use to assess streams and waterways.
- Responsive aquatic restoration.
Resource Management
We are committed to:
Enhancing the effectiveness of Iwi participation in planning and management (primary focus is natural resource planning and management):
Developing resource management tools for Maori and communities to use to increase their participation in resource management
Developing capacity within Maori communities to take advantage of existing tools/ mechanisms (iwi plans, CIAs, Cultural Assessments etc) and developing models of participation (relationship agreements, governance structures protocols etc).
Enhancing the effectiveness of Iwi participation in planning and management (primary focus is natural resource planning and management):
Developing resource management tools for Maori and communities to use to increase their participation in resource management
- Cultural Health Index – jointly with Laurel Teirney, Colin Townsend.
- An integrated planning process (Cultural Opportunity Mapping Assessment and Response – COMAR) that reshapes how whanau undertake iwi planning and focuses on achieving a range of social, environmental and economic opportunities – all of which collectively represent a cultural outcome.
- A process for whanau to undertake a Cultural Flow Preference Study in order to inform flow setting processes now being implemented across Canterbury.
Developing capacity within Maori communities to take advantage of existing tools/ mechanisms (iwi plans, CIAs, Cultural Assessments etc) and developing models of participation (relationship agreements, governance structures protocols etc).
