A comprehensive framework for implementing mahinga kai as a compulsory National Objectives Framework (NOF) value, ensuring tangata whenua can safely reconnect with their ancestral waters and sustain traditional practices for future generations.
The National Objectives Framework provides a structured approach to freshwater management that must actively involve tangata whenua at every stage. Regional councils have clear obligations to engage meaningfully with Māori communities.
01
Community Engagement
Regional councils must engage with communities and tangata whenua, ensuring active involvement in decision-making processes.
02
Value Identification
Enable tangata whenua to identify Māori freshwater values, including mahinga kai and other culturally significant aspects.
03
Hierarchy Application
Apply the hierarchy of obligations to determine appropriate limits based on identified values and long-term visions.
04
Collaborative Planning
Work together to establish limits that achieve priorities whilst respecting cultural values and environmental needs.
Long-Term Visions for Freshwater Management
Long-term visions must be ambitious yet achievable, setting goals that inspire meaningful change over realistic timeframes. These visions form the foundation for all subsequent planning decisions.
Vision #1: Healthy Ecosystems
By 2035, awa and repo have healthy plant and animal communities in the water and on adjacent land, sustaining mahinga kai resources important for tangata whenua.
Vision #2: Cultural Reconnection
Tangata whenua can safely reconnect with their awa and repo, exercising traditional mahinga kai customs and practices in places used by their tīpuna, being kaitiaki of their waters.
These visions must be set at Freshwater Management Unit (FMU), part of an FMU, or catchment level, with timeframes that are both ambitious and reasonable—typically around 30 years for transformational change.
Mahinga Kai Values Framework
Mahinga kai represents both the species traditionally used as food, tools, or resources, and the places where they're found. This compulsory NOF value ensures cultural practices can continue whilst maintaining ecological health.
Safe Harvest
Kai is safe to harvest and eat, with desired species plentiful enough for long-term harvest across all life stages.
Food safety standards met
Sustainable population levels
Knowledge transfer opportunities
Intact Mauri
The mauri of the place remains intact, allowing customary practices to be exercised using traditional tikanga and preferred methods.
Customary resources available
Traditional practices maintained
Cultural protocols respected
These values directly support the long-term visions by ensuring both ecological health and cultural continuity are maintained for future generations.
Environmental Outcomes
Environmental outcomes translate long-term visions into measurable objectives that can be monitored and assessed. Each outcome must directly link to the mahinga kai values and enable effective evaluation of policy success.
Sustainable Harvest
Tangata whenua can sustainably harvest mahinga kai plants (such as harakeke) and taonga important to them, for whānau and marae events year-round, in places where they have historically occurred.
Active Kaitiakitanga
Tangata whenua exercise kaitiakitanga whilst actively carrying out mahinga kai customs and practices in awa and repo throughout the year, respecting local tikanga and kawa in ancestral places.
These outcomes provide the bridge between aspirational visions and practical implementation, ensuring that cultural values are protected through measurable environmental improvements.
Measuring Success: Attribute Framework
Attributes provide measurable characteristics to assess how well mahinga kai values are being protected. They must be specific, measurable over time, and formatted for NOF reporting requirements.
Compulsory NOF Attributes
Existing NOF attributes support mahinga kai values, including fish populations, macroinvertebrates, dissolved oxygen, E. coli levels, and cyanobacteria monitoring.
Environmental Flows
Appropriate environmental flows and levels ensure adequate water quantity to support healthy mahinga kai populations and cultural practices.
Cultural Attributes
Specific mahinga kai attributes developed with tangata whenua to measure cultural outcomes, including harvest abundance and site accessibility.
The combination of scientific and cultural monitoring ensures comprehensive assessment of both ecological health and cultural value protection.
Practical Attribute Examples
Three key attributes demonstrate how mahinga kai values can be measured and managed effectively. Each attribute includes specific bands from A (excellent) to D (poor) with clear targets.
These attributes provide tangible measures that connect directly to cultural outcomes, ensuring that improvements in water quality translate to meaningful benefits for tangata whenua.
Alternative Monitoring Approaches
When quantitative attributes cannot fully capture cultural values, alternative criteria using social surveys and qualitative assessments provide comprehensive evaluation methods.
Intergenerational Knowledge
Likert scale surveys measuring knowledge transfer with target average score of 4: "Te Rea: I am learning and practising this knowledge" across all knowledge types.
Water Governance
Annual partnership audits achieving 'Tika' score where mana whenua have authority over natural resource management and are resourced appropriately.
Waterway Connection
Social surveys measuring connection to waterways with target average score of 3 or above, whilst maintaining environmental distress below 3.
These alternative approaches recognise that cultural values often require different measurement methods than traditional environmental indicators.
Implementation Strategy
Successful mahinga kai implementation requires coordinated action across multiple timeframes, from immediate interventions to generational change programmes.
1
Immediate Actions (1-2 years)
Remove barriers to tuna migration
Implement seasonal rāhui
Map important cultural sites
Establish stakeholder groups
2
Medium-term Goals (5-10 years)
Complete stock exclusion projects
Implement farm management plans
Stop wastewater discharges
Review regional plan rules
3
Long-term Vision (20-30 years)
Achieve target attribute states
Restore cultural practices fully
Complete habitat restoration
Ensure intergenerational transfer
This phased approach ensures immediate protection whilst building towards transformational long-term outcomes that honour both cultural values and environmental health.
Monitoring and Adaptive Management
Effective monitoring combines mātauranga Māori with scientific methods to track progress towards target attribute states and environmental outcomes. This ensures accountability and enables adaptive management responses.
Comprehensive Monitoring Framework
Monitoring must include measures of mātauranga Māori by tangata whenua and the health of indigenous flora and fauna. Cultural monitoring is undertaken by tangata whenua themselves, ensuring authentic assessment of cultural outcomes.
Key monitoring elements include:
Progress against attribute states and environmental outcomes
Delivery of management methods and action plans
Achievement of limits on resource use
Cultural health indicators and traditional knowledge transfer
This integrated approach ensures that both scientific and cultural indicators inform management decisions, creating a robust foundation for adaptive management that responds to changing conditions whilst maintaining cultural integrity.
Cultural Monitoring Priority
Tangata whenua lead their own cultural monitoring, ensuring authentic assessment of mahinga kai values and outcomes.
Through this comprehensive framework, mahinga kai values are protected and enhanced, ensuring that future generations can continue to exercise their cultural practices in healthy, thriving freshwater environments.