Te Pae Kōuka Māori Advisory Team

Our Te Pae Kōuka advisors are the primary point of contact between Horizons and the tangata whenua of our region. They support partnership structures, develop and maintain formal relationship agreements, build organisational cultural competency, and enable meaningful tangata whenua engagement in policy development, resource management and environmental projects.

On this page

Our mahi

Supporting Horizons to meet its legislative obligations to tangata whenua in our region, including enabling iwi and hapū to participate in Council decision-making processes.
Connecting iwi and hapū with relevant project teams across the organisation.
Supporting post-settlement co-governance arrangements, such as those under Te Awa Tupua and Te Waiū-o-Te-Ika.
Building and maintaining memorandums of partnership and other formal agreements.
Supporting the development and lodgement of Iwi and Hapū Environmental Management Plans.
Supporting Council to incorporate mātauranga Māori into its environmental work.

Building internal capability

Strong and beneficial relationships with iwi and hapū need more than just a single dedicated team. Horizons operates across a complex rohe that includes multiple iwi and hapū with distinct histories, interests and mandates. As a result, engagement with tangata whenua can't be treated as a single relationship – it's a portfolio of distinct relationships, each with their own processes and expectations.

Managing this well requires both dedicated resourcing and a Horizons-wide understanding of the relationships involved. That's why Horizons is investing in the cultural competency of our staff across the organisation. All councillors and the executive leadership team also participate in a cultural competency programme, which includes self-assessment and ongoing professional development.

Get in touch

To reach our Iwi and Hapū Relationships team, email iwi.mailbox@horizons.govt.nz

Working together with tangata whenua

Our region is home to more than 30 iwi and 100 hapū. Strong relationships between Horizons Regional Council and tangata whenua aren't just good practice, they're essential to good environmental decision-making in a region where the connections between people and place run deep.

Formal Partnerships and Arrangements

Iwi and hapū throughout the region have expressed a desire to work in various forms of partnership with Horizons. Some of these aspirations are embedded through Treaty settlements – others are acknowledged through memoranda of partnership and other formal arrangements.

Iwi and Hapū Environmental Management Plans

An Environmental Management Plan is a document prepared by an iwi or hapū authority that sets out how that group wants their taonga, rohe and cultural values considered in resource management and planning decisions.

Treaty Settlements

When an iwi settles with the Crown, the resulting legislation includes provisions that create direct obligations for regional councils. Our region is one of the last in the country where the settlement process is still actively underway. For us, that means both ongoing obligations and new opportunities to work alongside iwi and hapū as they realise their aspirations.

Statutory Acknowledgements

Statutory acknowledgements are statements of cultural, spiritual, historic, and traditional associations of an iwi with a site or an area acknowledged by the Crown in Treaty of Waitangi settlement processes. They have legal weight from inclusion in Treaty claims settlement acts.

Iwi and Hapū Contacts

Horizons maintains an iwi and hapū contacts database for the region. This database ensures that our staff are communicating and facilitating connections with the right people.