A Whakawhanaungatanga Māori wellbeing model for housing and urban environments

ABSTRACT

Significant effort is underway to address the housing crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa), including rapid investment in public and community housing. As Māori (the Indigenous people of Aotearoa) face many systemic barriers and impediments to home ownership, delivery and development of housing options and make up a significant proportion of public housing tenants, developing and managing housing and associated neighbourhoods that enable and support Māori wellbeing is of critical importance. To support this, we introduce A Whakawhanaungatanga Māori Wellbeing Model for Housing and Urban Environments – for use by researchers, developers, designers, managers and regulators – that emphasises whakawhanaungatanga (relationship building and creating connectedness) as central to wellbeing outcomes for Māori. Here we outline seven key concepts from Te Ao Māori built into our model, and pose questions to help guide researchers and housing and urban development actors in their respective research and development activities. While the model is primarily intended to contribute to Māori wellbeing outcomes in Aotearoa, it may also be of broader international interest to those working toward wellbeing outcomes in relation to housing and urban environments, particularly for Indigenous peoples.

KEYWORDS:

• Māori
• wellbeing
• public housing
• housing
• built environment
• urban development
• indigenous
• infrastructure
• Hauora
• health

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Biddy Livesey (He Tūāpapa Kua Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development), Anaru Waa (University of Otago – Department of Public Health, Wellington), Clare Aspinall, Alison Cadman and Kataraina Anaru of Dwell Housing Trust Wellington, and Vikki Ham and colleagues at the Housing First Collective Auckland for their comments and guidance on draft versions of the paper. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi), signed in 1840, provides the basis for partnership and engagement between Māori (the Indigenous people of Aotearoa) and the Crown (the Government) where both parties have interests.

2 Whanaungatanga is a very important cultural value for Māori (Greaves et al. 2021); it has even been referred to as ‘the basic cement that holds things Māori together’ (Ritchie 1992, p. 6). Although its meaning is complex and cannot be captured fully in English translations, we use it in this paper to mean relationships based on shared ancestry, experiences and/or purpose that carry obligations and responsibilities for reciprocal caring and support. The concept is often extended to include non-kin community members while still upholding the notion of mutual care and common purpose (O’Connell et al. 2018).

3 Taonga tuku iho are treasures – such as te reo (the Māori language) and tikanga – passed down from tūpuna (ancestors).

4 Marae are traditional gathering places for formal meetings and discussions.

5 Mana whenua are those who hold traditional authority over a location; mātāwaka are those who migrate to urban areas and their descendants; taura here are those who continue to actively associate with their iwi or hapū of origin iwi whilst living elsewhere; taunga hou are those who identify as Māori who live outside their traditional tribal area and through decision or circumstance no longer actively associate with their iwi or hapū of origin.

6 Turangawaewae refers to standing in a place where one has the right to stand – place where one has rights of residence and belonging through kinship and whakapapa.

7 Mana whenua refers to authority in a location, as compared with tāngata whenua, which is a broader concept referring to the local people, usually by some ancestral link (Kohu-Morris 2020).

8 Papakāinga refers to Māori collective housing usually located on whenua Māori; and ahi kā (burning fires) is a cultural principle referring to the visible occupation and use of whenua that establishes and reinforces rights and authority over the whenua (mana whenua).

9 For more information about the Public Housing and Urban Regeneration: Maximising Wellbeing Research Programme, see the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities website: https://www.sustainablecities.org.nz/our-research/current-research/public-housingurban-regeneration-programme.

10 The Programme’s seven workstreams: Governance, Wellbeing, Housing Design and Quality, Community Formation and Urban Design and, Transport, Energy and Te Ao Māori.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the MBIE Endeavour Programme, Public housing and urban regeneration: maximising wellbeing (Grant ID:20476 UOOX2003).