Maatai

An online toolkit for learning, creating and customizing cultural health indicator surveys.

Whakatakanga

Ensuring the mauri of the waterway is not diminished, gathering mahinga kai for sustenance and maintaining the mana of the tribe are all fundamental (Māori) cultural values.
However as the country was settled, the kaitiakitanga role of Tangata Whenua was downgraded. More recently, the right of Tangata Whenua to take part in managing freshwater resources has been formally recognised and legislated for … (MFE 2019).

Why Cultural Health Index (CHI) surveys are so important:

The Cultural Health Index (CHI) is rapidly becoming a preferred tool for use by kaitiaki and Māori communities to become more actively involved in baseline monitoring and the detection of change in the wellbeing of Atua domains/ecosystems within their Whenua Rohe. We can no longer just assume that permitted and consented resource management activities are not going to have an unwanted net effect. Ongoing measurement is now necessary. CHI surveys prioritise sites of cultural significance documented in Iwi Management Plans while their results contribute to collective knowledge creation that can be used to evidence emerging wellbeing concerns and improvements.

Become part of the decision-making process

Cultural health index (CHI) surveys were created in New Zealand by Māori scholars/kaitiaki to support Māori communities to incorporate Māori cultural wellbeing priorities and concerns into (RMA) planning, policy and business decision-making. This web-app can be used to learn about, create and customise a CHI for your hapū, iwi Māori land, trust or kura. Your CHI survey results can be stored in a way that provides an evidential basis for automated or customised, external or internal reporting/submissions.

Learn all about cultural health indicators

The Maatai web-app draws on nearly 20 years of research into the role of wellbeing measurement and evaluation in a Māori community context. It’s learning and support resources include: (i) fully functional worked examples and (ii) guidance on co-creation in a Māori community context.

CHI co-creation in a Māori community context

Māori scholars in New Zealand came up with the idea of creating a ‘Cultural’ Health Index (CHI) to help Māori communities measure and assess the wellbeing of atua domains or ecosystems. Thus, in New Zealand the word ‘cultural’ is generally understood to mean ‘whānau Māori’ Health Index. While many different Cultural Health Indexes (CHI) have been created internationally, their development and use follows a common cyclical pathway. This pathway forms a helpful basis for the use of this Maatai CHI accounting tool.