Master Planning

As Okāhu Rakau was working on a plan to increase their nursery production from approximately 30-40,000 native plants, to 500,000, they realized that the scale of growth actually required a step back. What were they doing it for, who was going to benefit, how might they involve more whanau? In the months since, the nursery team has been developing their capacity to get to the next stage - double production numbers for 2018. Rangimarie directed her Toi Whenua team set out to tackle the bigger project of creating a strategy to develop the Whenua Rangatira and Pourewa.

He aha te mea nui o te ao

What is the most important thing in the world?

He tangata, he tangata, he tangata

It is the people, it is the people, it is the people

Although the plan for development of the whenua will show landscaping, pathways, and a few buildings, that’s not the heart of the design. The central question that the team working on the master plan focus on is ‘How Might We bring whanau together on the whenua?’

Over the last few months the team has been working on gathering lots of different inspiration and research. When we start running the co-design workshops with whanau in the coming year, you will have all the information and inspiration you need to be at your most creative. You deserve to have a world class experience at the workshops in 2018 because we want to develop a world class reserve for cultural connection, healing, learning, and caring for the environment.

Over the next few months you’ll see announcements about workshops. The first ones we’ll do in December will be for the Whai Maia interns. Be on the lookout for signup forms to workshops in February and March.

Instead of thinking about which buildings might be erected, or where walking paths might go, we’re asking how the visual language of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei might be represented in the design. The concepts will show how cultural occupation can create a visual and human presence that celebrates the history and culture of Tamaki Makaurau and Ngati Whatua with Orakei the backbone of this celebration.

How do we make this master plan real? It’s not enough to do all this engagement with whanau and just print out a report. So we’re collecting stories about what the hapu’s values mean to you, we’re commissioning research on what Auckland might be like in 50 year, and we’re running workshops where we can gather and make and debate what the future will look like. We’ll have exhibitions for the art from the future and we’ll try out pilot programs to get your feedback.

At the end of the day, it’s the activities and programs we host on the land that will make a difference. We want to walk through this master planning process with our whanau. Please get involved. Sign up for a workshop, contact us if you’re interested in being interviewed, comment on our blog. Whatever form works for you, this is for you, so tell us how you want to be involved and we’ll do our best to adapt for you.