Beyond procurement: Hon Nanaia Mahuta’s call for an economy of mana
21 November 2025
An economic system that balances people, planet and prosperity
At 2025 Navigate Summit, keynote speaker Hon Nanaia Mahuta invited guests to think beyond procurement and towards indigenous economic transformation.
Speaking to a room of buyers, suppliers and industry leaders, Nanaia urged a collective rethink of what economic success looks like. Rather than focusing on extraction or growth for its own sake, she called for systems that restore balance between people, planet and prosperity.
“How do we design an economic system where wellbeing is wealth, relationship is currency, respect is the economic system, reciprocity is compounding interest, and regeneration is the return on investment?”
Guided by the wisdom of Kīngi Tāwhiao
Nanaia opened her address with a tongikura from Kīngi Tāwhiao, who reminded his people to hold fast to faith, love and the wellbeing of future generations. She encouraged the audience to measure every decision against one simple test: does it enhance mana and embed wellbeing for our mokopuna?
“Indigenous economic transformation is not an aspiration”, she said. “It is already happening. It is growing, resilient and innovative. But we must not be complacent. We need our adventurers to carve the path into the tradeable sector and build opportunities through indigenous-to-indigenous trade links.”
Why transformation is urgent
Drawing on the late Dr Manuka Henare’s idea of an “economy of mana”, Mahuta described how Māori and indigenous values could shape a more balanced economic system. She contrasted the current approach, which “counts activity but not meaning,” with one that too often celebrates growth even when it destroys the environment and deepens inequities.
“GDP rises while rivers die. Shareholder profits soar while whānau sleep in cars” she said.
The four Rs of an indigenous economy
Outlining what she called the foundation of a future indigenous economy, Nanaia talked about four Rs: relationship, respect, reciprocity and regeneration. A fifth R, reclamation, she said, was about restoring what has been lost or taken.
This framework, she explained, shifts thinking from competition to collective wellbeing, replacing extraction with reciprocity and scarcity with abundance.
“Hope is not naïve. Hope is praxis,” she said. “It is the alignment of intention and action. It is the choice to be good ancestors.”
She described hope as deliberate action, turning anger into agency, grief into healing, and aspiration into architecture. “It’s the ability to imagine alternatives and act with courage to make them real,” she said.
Shaping the foundations for indigenous trade and cooperation
Nanaia highlighted the potential of the Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation Arrangement (IPETCA), which connects indigenous economies across Aotearoa, Australia, Canada and Taiwan. She described it as an emerging platform for Indigenous-to-Indigenous trade and cooperation on a global scale.
She outlined a vision for trade grounded in tikanga and indigenous governance, where free, prior and informed consent is essential and benefit-sharing is embedded. An indigenous development finance facility, sovereign data systems, and cross-border talent exchanges were some of the practical ideas she suggested for building a regenerative economic future.
Nanaia greeting Marisa Pene at Amotai international delegation event, Wānanga at Waipapa
The time is now
Nanaia reminded the audience that transformation requires the willingness to move beyond tribal ego and short-term gain, and to act with the needs of future generations in mind. “We must be brave enough to reject systems that collide with our values,” she said, “and be bold enough to embed hope, not as rhetoric, but as strategy.”
In closing, she returned to Tāwhiao’s prophecy, E kore tēnei oranga e huri ki tua o āku mokopuna, reminding everyone that hope and courage must guide today’s actions if the next generation is to thrive.
“Our mokopuna will not suffer as we have, if we act with courage today,” she said. “Hope is the collaboration that leaves footprints, signposts and detours for those who follow. The choice is ours. The time is now. Let’s paddle together.”
She left the audience with a final question:
“What will our generation’s gift to mokopuna be? Will it be another decade of poverty, dispossession and inequality? Or will it be an indigenous economic system grounded in wellbeing, reciprocity, and regeneration, a system forged through alignment, strengthened by collaboration, and brought to life through partnership?”
Nanaia receiving koha from MC Stacey Morrison
*This article draws on the keynote speech Beyond Procurement: Towards Indigenous Economic Transformation, delivered by Hon Nanaia Mahuta at the Navigate Summit 2025.