Case study: Changing lives on Aotea

Growing Māori business capability to work on their whenua (land).

When Auckland Council’s Environmental Services department needed conservation work done on Aotea they seized the opportunity to explore how they could work and enable mana whenua of the island to carry out this work rather than putting the work out to tender to the general market.

Auckland Council spent time building strong relationships with Motairehe Marae to understand the aspirations of whānau in this space and how they could help. What came out of these discussions was a clear desire for Motairehe Marae whānau to carry out the conservation contracts on their own whenua. However, there was a need to support them to develop their capability to undertake the work.

Environmental Services took a supplier development approach providing Motairehe Marae with wrap around support to build a sustainable business under the umbrella of the Marae Trust.

This started with a funding agreement (grant) for Motairehe whānau to undertake training in key areas like the safe use of pesticides. These grants were a way to build the capability of Motairehe Marae to deliver biosecurity work on Aotea.

Importantly, this was much greater than a contract for services. The team really leaned into the relationship and built genuine connections, understanding the unique perspectives of Motairehe.

"Our mātaraunga Māori, our whenua, our responsibilities as kaitiaki to protect tribal lands has been fully respected, realised and brought to life by Auckland Council in Motairehe Limited"

-Hope Munro, Motairehe Marae

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