Making the Te Tiriti-led Planner

The resource management reforms create an opportunity for planners to be Te Tiriti-ready and responsive. Transformation is needed across planning institutions - in councils, consultancies, government departments and Planning Schools - at the level of the individual and the collective. The frontline of the change are the accredited Planning Schools that make students into planners. For the last 30 years, these Schools have been responsive to a path emphasising sustainable management, taking into account the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and consultation with Māori. For the next 30 years, we must chart a new course with new beacons: upholding Te Oranga o te Taiao, giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and co-governance between rangatira and kāwana.

In 2020, the Planning Programme at Massey University embarked collectively on a process of changing ourselves - our curriculum and our way of being in the classroom - to become Te Tiriti-led. Our mahi is to make planners who are Te Tiriti-led: who can operate competently and sensitively in this transitional space where Māori are decision-makers; who can build the relationships needed to understand Māori representation on the ground; and who know how to explore what kāwanatanga and tino rangatiratanga are, and how, for example, kāwanatanga powers might be deployed to advance tino rangatiratanga. This presentation shares our process. Our aim is to contribute to a broader discussion about how all of us in the Planning Profession can re-make ourselves to be Te Tiriti-led for the next generation.