WHENUA TŪPUNA, WHENUA HAUORA: Ancestral and Relational Landscapes

Abstract

The overarching intention of this PhD research is to explore ways to enhance multi-dimensional wellbeing through recognising the landscapes in which business operates. The global community is demanding more accountability, more sustainability and greater wellbeing from business. Yet, many of the sustainability practices being adopted by public and private organisations continue to be applied within the existing capitalist paradigm that measures success predominantly based on economic outcomes. Instead, our modern society requires a new overarching economic paradigm of interdependence and interconnection. This thesis argues that this ‘new’ flourishing worldview is more of a revitalisation of an old paradigm embedded in Indigenous wisdom, where human wellbeing is directly correlated to the wellbeing of the landscape in which people dwell. More than a source of economic development and a supporting actor in the physical vitality of life, landscapes provide the foundations of spiritual, cultural and social wellbeing. With a focus on the life energies of hau and hihiri, this study presents philosophical, historical and spiritual knowledge and experiences of Māori wisdom that can aid in the journey of Aotearoa-New Zealand towards a flourishing society. Māori conceptualisations of wellbeing are viewed as multi-dimensional and underpinned by the life force of hau, which is constantly striving to meet ora—hauora. It is the long-term quality of the relationships, the balance of reciprocity and the exchange of mana that allows hau to thrive. The ethic of caring for such energies and relationships is encapsulated within the principle of kaitiakitanga, an ethic of care to create flourishing multi-dimensional landscapes. A Māori philosophy of economics is described, an Economy of Mana (Hēnare, 2003, 2011, 2014a), which recognises the intangible elements of relationships (such as hihiri, hau, mana, tapu, mauri and wairua) and how they affect, influence and generate economic activity. A case study of a leading Māori organisation demonstrates how the principles of an Economy of Mana can be expressed in a modern business context and how kaitiakitanga can become a business strategy engrained into organisational processes. This case shows that aspirations of flourishing landscapes are more than rhetoric, but achievable business and community objectives. Drawing on mātauranga Māori handed down from ancestors, this study also introduces a Māori process of coming to know—Te Hihiri Process. This is a Māori epistemology, philosophy and a way of being in the world that locates both the research and researcher within a wider realm of relationships. This process recognises and privileges the voices of Māori ancestors through the oral literature of respected Māori leaders.