An Immersion Planning Studio with an Indigenous Community in New Zealand: Case Study

Abstract

This article shares good practice lessons relating to the running of an immersion studio designed to introduce planning students to working with an indigenous Māori community in New Zealand. The indigenous tribes of Aotearoa New Zealand are collectively known as Māori and represent the indigenous inhabitants who occupied New Zealand for hundreds of years before European contact (Fleras & Spoonley, 1999). In 1840, Māori chiefs and representatives of the British Crown signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Treaty of Waitangi which are the foundational documents of Aotearoa New Zealand. These treaties set out rights, obligations and responsibilities between Māori and the Crown that, in part, have been incorporated into New Zealand’s statutory planning framework. The studio formed part of the four year undergraduate programme in planning, accredited by the New Zealand Planning Institute, and running in semester one of year three. The studio involved students working with the Te Hana Community Development Charitable Trust and its community, a grassroots initiative, and with the help of their teachers identifying outputs which would be most useful to the community. The first of the outputs was delivered during a three-day stay on the marae on week five and the second set of outputs on week twelve at a presentation to community representatives at the University marae. In terms of good practice, the immersion studio demonstrates that mutual benefits can be achieved through the development of a partnership approach to learning. The relationship with the community was based on the rangatira ki te rangatira (chief to chief) principle which ensured that the status, reputation and mana (authority) of the teaching team indicated the high value placed on the relationship by the University and equally the high status accorded to the studio by the community. The studio also demonstrated how to prepare students to ensure they respected the tikanga (protocols) of the marae and did not cause offence. It makes an important contribution to the limited literature on immersion studios with indigenous groups.