Tangata Mauri
Māori Facilitation Exploration
Tangata Mauri is an immersive noho experience for facilitators to explore Māori facilitation, and what our tūpuna can teach us about how we facilitate today.
It's not your usual facilitation training. Rather, it's a space to wānanga, explore and learn together — pooling the wisdom that already exists within.
How we got here
During my time at ANZ, I had the privilege of working alongside some incredible facilitators. Watching how they brought out the best in people sparked something in me, and before I knew it, I was stepping into facilitation roles myself, learning as I went and figuring it out along the way, with no formal training to guide me.
From strategic planning in schools to working alongside communities and eventually establishing AraHina, facilitation became a huge part of my mahi. So I thought, I should probably learn how to do this properly. That's when I found the Technology of Participation (ToP) training.
In 2021, I went along to my first facilitation training at Te Mauri Tau in Whaingaroa. We began with a pōhiri, then explored the facilitative qualities within each part of the process. And my mind was blown. Here I was, learning how to facilitate in a Western world, when Māori had been facilitating expertly for generations.
I was actually so upset by this revelation. It made me realise I hadn't fallen into facilitation at all. I'd grown up on my marae surrounded by it. I wasn't new to facilitation. I was born into it.
And I couldn't stop thinking: how could I learn from the facilitative qualities of my tūpuna and embody them in my own practice?
That pātai became the beginning of Tangata Mauri.
So the journey began...
By exploring how Māori facilitated before Western influence, I began looking beyond the tools and processes I'd been taught and back to mātauranga Māori, tikanga, and the practices of our tūpuna.
And that got me thinking: what if we created a dedicated space to explore what facilitation is, and may have been, for Māori?
At Te Mauri Tau in Whaingaroa, Whaea Tuihana, Helen, Katarina, my hoa haere, and I began to explore what it could look like if we created a space for facilitators to explore Māori facilitation before Western influence.
We started with wānanga. Questioning. Exploring. Learning. Unlearning. Connecting with te taiao, our atua, and the practices of our tūpuna, exploring their facilitative qualities and what they could teach us about facilitation today.
Through our wānanga, we came across Dr Rangimārie Rose Pere's concept of Tangata Mauri in Ako: Concepts & Learning in the Māori Tradition. She described Tangata Mauri as those who understood the strengths within the collective, welcomed challenge, and created space for everyone to contribute and find a way forward, together.
What is Tangata Mauri?
Tangata Mauri, explored by Dr Rangimārie Rose Pere in Ako: Concepts & Learning in the Māori Tradition, guides our approach to Māori facilitation. It reminds us that facilitation is not about having all the answers, but about knowing your people, creating space for everyone to contribute, and drawing on the collective wisdom already within the group. This is the approach we aim to embody in every hui, wānanga and space we have the privilege of facilitating.
Challenge was expected
People could question, probe, and challenge ideas. Proposals were carefully discussed and analysed as a natural and vital part of collective decision-making.
Everyone had a role
The best approaches enabled whānau to participate and contribute their energy, power, labour, and strengths.
The facilitator needed to know their people
Their qualities, strengths, attitudes, and contributions to bring out the full potential of the collective.
Arotahi came at a pivotal
point in the journey
After years of exploration, wānanga, and learning, the journey towards Tangata Mauri reached a significant turning point.
Carved with purpose
Arotahi, Karioi Manu Bay, was carved by Katarina's brother, Pita, and gifted as a mauri for the kaupapa. Its purpose is to support and focus the kaupapa, and to help carry the weight when the journey gets tough, a physical reminder of the intention at the heart of the mahi.
Woven into the kaupapa
At the close of one of the wānanga, the rōpū created Te Wai o Arotahi, a karakia capturing the essence of facilitation through a Māori lens.
"Weave the threads that gather, bind them strong, bind them true..."
A taonga created collectively for the journey ahead.
The journey doesn't end when the kaupapa finishes.
After each kaupapa, Arotahi is taken back to the wai, where the water flows in and flows out. A practice of washing away the hara, and preparing to move forward again.
Register your interest
Places for this noho experience are limited, so we're gathering expressions of interest first. Pop your details below and we'll be in touch with dates, location, and everything you need to know.
What if we created a dedicated space to explore what facilitation is, and may have been, for Māori?
That pātai became Tangata Mauri.
