Recently, the Community Waitākere team gathered for a Tikanga and Kawa workshop, facilitated by Shane from Hoani Waititi Marae. The session was part of the organisation's ongoing journey toward becoming an effective Te Tiriti o Waitangi partner — work being shaped by Aroha, Pou Whakataki Māori, through the Hautū Waka framework. The session opened with a mihi whakatau, waiata, and kai — setting the tone for the kind of grounded, relational learning that has characterised this kaupapa from the start.

Shane began by drawing a distinction that sat at the heart of the workshop: the difference between tikanga and kawa. Kawa, he explained, are the fixed, sacred protocols — the non-negotiables that hold across contexts. Tikanga, by contrast, is far more than a set of rules. It carries the depth of Māori knowledge and values, forming the foundation of how you think, act, and relate — and crucially, it can be adapted to context. Where kawa holds, tikanga flexes. As Shane put it, if something doesn't breach tikanga, let it go — even if it looks a little different from what you might expect.

For a team thinking carefully about how to show up alongside Māori communities, this framing was both clarifying and freeing. It offered a way to hold the work with integrity while remaining genuinely responsive to context.

The workshop explored what it looks like to integrate tikanga and kawa into daily operations and governance — not as performance, but as authentic practice. Shane raised a question that lingered: do you say karakia for kai when there are no guests? The invitation was to reflect on the difference between public tikanga and private practice, and to consider where genuine commitment lives. It is a question that resonates for an organisation still building its confidence and capability in this space.

There was also important grounding in history. Tikanga was suppressed for around a hundred years, the result of Christianity and colonialism. The reclaiming and revitalisation of tikanga has been — and continues to be — led by Māori communities themselves. Understanding that context matters — it shapes why this work is not simply about adding cultural elements to existing ways of working, but about something more considered and more respectful.

Shane shared that Hoani Waititi Marae hosts a range of communities, including tangihanga for Samoan whānau, and emphasised the value of having honest conversations about expectations before welcoming others into shared spaces. He also spoke to the concept of mana tangata — the way Hoani Waititi works to empower people, not in opposition to others, but alongside and in complement to them. It is a model of relationship that Community Waitākere is itself aspiring toward.

The team left with a clearer sense of what it means to engage respectfully and with intention — and with a phrase that Shane offered as a north star for the mahi ahead: aim for what's good for your grandchildren.