As part of the 2018 Tuia Pito Ora (NZILA) conference, three Te Tau-a-Nuku members contributed to the Culture + Community session. Presentations by Alayna Renata¹, Rameka Alexander-Tu’inukuafe² and Jacqueline Paul³ included discussions on the role of non-Māori design practitioners in cultural design, understanding tikanga Māori, and community engagement opportunities through co-design. Each of the presenters touched on topics in a way which provoked thought amongst the audience, challenging the historical notion of what ‘cultural design’ is and of how to add true value to communities through landscape architecture. The presentations prompted delegates to consider whether the spaces and places they are designing reflect tangata whenua and mana whenua connection with the landscapes in which they work. In the panel session that followed, the presenters identified opportunities for how best-collaboration with Māori practitioners could occur and gave conference participants a glimpsed view of the multiple hats that Māori practitioners wear when undertaking design that is so inherently connected with their ancestral connection to the whenua.

The trick is to move past pou-ification (the token pou in the corner). The challenge is to engage, and the ideal is to colaborate.

Alayna Renata, Te Tau-a-Nuku-a-Nuku

¹ - Kāi Tahu ki Puketeraki me Tuwharetoa ki Kawerau; ²- Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Rehia, Ngai Tawake ki te Tuawhenua, Tonga, Pakeha; ³ - Ngāi Tupango, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Ngāti Tuwharetoa.