Future Proofing Māori Development Opportunities: Huringa Rangi Huringa Oranga

The overarching research platform questions include:

1. What strategies/approaches grounded in tikanga Māori can Māori institutions utilise in order to adapt and respond to climate change and natural hazards?
2. What are the key short to medium term priorities for Māori communities to respond to climate change and what are the pathways for implementation of strategies/approaches responsive to mitigating the impacts of climate change?
3. What alternative economy (e.g. community or collaborative economy) strategies or approaches grounded in tikanga Māori can be utilised to improve Māori community well-being in the aftermath of a natural hazard?

Climate change is widely regarded as one of the most serious global health threats of the 21st century and it is expected to have major implications for future and existing well-being in New Zealand. Its impacts will be disproportionately borne by the most disadvantaged populations including indigenous peoples. For Māori in Aotearoa/New Zealand, as with other indigenous peoples worldwide, colonisation has led to dispossession of land and destabilisation of cultural foundations as well as social, economic and political marginalisation.

Māori continue to have long-term interests in the land that remains and are also heavily invested in primary industries, which are exposed to a range of vulnerabilities from both present and future projected climatic conditions.

Through multiple collaborations across Nga Pae o te Maramatanga research theme areas (Whai Rawa, Mauri Ora, Te Reo me ngā Tikanga, Te Taiao) and across National Science Challenges, in this project we are:

• Co-ordinating a multidisciplinary team of Māori researchers with respect to climate change to; consolidate a repository of Māori and indigenous research with respect to climate change,
• Identifying climate change mitigation and adaption solutions for Māori,
• Promoting Māori responsiveness to climate change with a range of key stakeholders and partners including: whanau/hapū/iwi, Māori business and entrepreneurs, local and central government.

This platform project is the first of many collaborative, multi-institutional and holistic Nga Pae o te Maramatanga projects.

Our transformative approach will change mind-sets and create socially-optimal outcomes, maximising the well-being of communities in response to climate change, the most significant challenge facing our whanau/hapū/iwi.

This is an NPM Platform Project