Cultural-spatial contexts: understanding entrepreneurial ecosystems from an Indigenous world view

Abstract

In this paper we explore the cultural-spatial aspects of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Indigenous Mãori of Aotearoa New Zealand, with particular focus on the cultural-spatial entity of the community complex or marae. Our focus here is to explore how the Mãori entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial ecosystem they engage with might be influenced by their identity as Mãori and in turn, what role the marae plays in that identity. We argue that from a Mãori perspective we need to engage in a deeper understanding of interaction between people and their landscape. For Indigenous communities, landscapes traditionally nourished communities economically as well as culturally and spiritually. Connection to land, in the fullest understanding of what land means—mountains, valley, streams, oceans, plant and animal life, earth and sky—lies at the very heart of what it means to be Indigenous. To emphasize this holistic understanding of place and spatial context we thus refer to the cultural-spatial as a bridge to an understanding of an entrepreneurial ecosystem from an Indigenous world view.