Te Tiriti-led and mission-oriented: Assessing Phase 2 of Our Land and Water Toitū te Whenua, Toiora te Wai

We provide evidence to support that deliberately embedding the Te Taiao model helped those involved in OLW, researchers and non-researchers, Māori and non-Māori, conceptualise, legitimise and make credible te ao Māori and what it means to be te Tiriti-led.

Interviewees indicated that the change provided a mechanism for better engagment with communities, including Māori communities. The data analysis and the network analysis both support this view of Phase 2: there was a wider range of people and entities involved in, and being paid from, the Challenge. The network analysis showed circulation of Mātauranga Māori in the network, including between pairs of non-Māori participants.

Through interviews with researchers and those involved in the OLW Directorate and governance, we point to the ways that OLW was able to help empower Māori people, knowledge, and resources and how that differed between Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Challenge.

The experience of OLW suggests that direction-setting of the mission, and questions around inclusivity, power, decision-making and resource-sharing need to be considered from the beginning. The difference made by embedding te ao Māori within the Challenge at Phase 2 points to the benefits of this approach to develop research that honours te Tiriti, and delivers impactful research for Māori and non-Māori communities.