Tikanga-led design: Whānau-led Innovation for System Transformation

In 2023, Angie and Penny collaborated with Yoko Akama (RMIT) and Joyce Yee (Northumbria University) on a book: Entanglements of designing social innovation in the Asia-Pacific, which was published in 2024. 

This post introduces our chapter, Tikanga-led design : whānau-led innovation for systems transformation, and provides a link to a pre-print version. 

We know that for communities experiencing the most disparity and impacts of colonisation, a continuation of dominant “expert-led”, externally imposed service models only compounds inequity.

Tikanga-led innovation uses aspects of western design and co-design methodologies, but is grounded in the practices of place, and of te ao Māori ways of being, knowing and doing. It is in the practice of starting with cultural values, perspectives and worldviews that change can be made and the process itself becomes one with transformational potential. 

Our approach to Tikanga-led innovation practice has evolved over the last five years at The Southern Initiative (TSI) and The Auckland Co-design Lab, alongside whānau and partners in South Auckland. The practice draws on established kaupapa Māori research (e.g Pihama, Cram, & Walker, 2002), evaluation practice and wellbeing scholarship, and positions embedded cultural practices from te ao Māori as critical to responding to current complex social challenges. 

We are exploring the potential of this approach to systems reconfiguration as a means for achieving rangatiratanga and equitable outcomes for Māori.

In this article, we: 

  • share an indigenous-led approach to transformative practice that seeks to restore, prioritise and recognise the capacities and power of whānau to lead their own local responses to complex social issues, disrupting and demonstrating alternatives to dominant service models.

  • introduce the methodology, developed alongside whānau in South Auckland, and 

  • illustrate the ways of being it prioritises through two examples of whānau-led innovation initiatives from Papakura.  

The Lab Team