He Pā Mataora

Learning to live with the Living Pā

He Pā Mataora seized the rare opportunity afforded in the lead-up to the opening of Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington’s Living Pā building to explore the needs and challenges of moving an entire marae community into more climate adaptive and resilient practices.

Our research explored four interrelated pātaka of knowledge: tikanga, reo, ako and taiao. Our aim was to proliferate effective and culturally relevant examples of living, learning and working more sustainably, as Māori, within an urban, pan-Māori context.

Our research connected with other Māori communities that have embraced Living Buildings and exemplar sustainable practices. We also hosted community wānanga, generated case studies, constructed tikanga frameworks, collected a Māori language corpus, developed innovative teaching resources and created virtual reality tools — all designed to share climate adaptation knowledge that encouraged a more tika transition to a zero-carbon economy.

We operationalised our findings at Te Herenga Waka marae, and within our curricula and research programmes. Ultimately this project was about sharing our learnings and resources with many other Māori communities, so they can be better prepared as well.

Our unique context, within a university, means it is our future students, ngā mokopuna o te pā, who will eventually take on roles as Living Pā champions. It is future students who will take manuhiri through the completed building, and its tikanga, while sharing their detailed understanding of how it all came together.