What we do
We create and curate experiences and resources that engage with the indigenous knowledge of the Moana.
Indigenous language is at the heart of what we do
Mana Moana draws its strength and potency from languages. Despite being a language and values-based resource, it is designed to be accessible to non-fluent speakers, as well as resonate with those who are fluent in Moana languages.
We activate ancestral intelligence
Vitalising and honouring indigenous knowledge, worldviews and language, philosophy, culture and rituals of the Moana in transformative ways.
Re-orienting us - with humility - to worldviews of deep connectivity that hold us accountable as responsible members of interdependent and intergenerational systems.
Exploring our own potentiality and unique legacy leadership contribution to intergenerational collective wellbeing if we accept our full power and purpose.
Aligning with ancestral intelligence and making mokopuna decisions to meet the needs of our time.
We Centre vā in all that we do
We focus on the quality of our relationships - vā - with each other, seeing this as the site of all leadership and life. We frame leadership as being fully accountable for the quality of our vā, interconnections and relationships.
We interrogate the quality of our own relationships and tending to, and attending to, what prevents us from leading in our own relational lives.
Increasing intentionality (atu)
Addressing the blocks, binds and entanglements that prevent healthy relationality.
Revisiting ancestral strategies for restorative practices and healing that bring back balance.
Healing our relationships with ocean, land, sky, spirit, tūpuna, the past, self, body, and other people.
Restoring healthy reciprocal flows of ‘ofa, alofa, aro’a, aroha, aloha - mutuality, empathy, and compassion - in the vā, systems and selves.
Understanding with clarity ancestral worldviews that prioritise relationality and our philosophies and ethics of care.
Approaching systems change through rebalancing power inequities and restoring systems and ecosystems with relationships that flow with mutuality, respect, empathy, reciprocity, compassion, balance and alofa, aroha, ‘ofa, aro’a, aloha.
We prototype practical change
Prototyping, operationalising the application of ancestral intelligence for meaningful change in professional and personal contexts.
Embedding and institutionalising ancestral wisdom in practical and influential ways in individual practice, teams, workplaces, systems and organisations.
Incubating ancestral intelligence in all of its imaginative, creative, explorative and generative potentiality.
We work in holistic ways
With Mana Moana we are purposively activating the ancestral in service of the contemporary. This requires a genuinely holistic approach, whereby we are able to reckon openly with the multidimensional and metaphysical lenses of our ancestors and what that might mean for how we interpret and construct our contemporary reality. It necessitates a deep and decolonising inquiry into the way our ancestors linked the everyday and the numinous, and why.
Our experiences build critical consciousness
Empowering critical thinking and growing conscientisation to reduce the harm caused by racism, colonisation, the doctrine of discovery and unconscious bias.
Decolonising and revitalising indigenous thought, praxis and being.
Uplifting the mana of peoples, places, environments, creatures, philosophies, knowledge systems, beliefs, values, taonga and practices that have been harmed by historical and contemporary forces .
Flexing the ability to negotiate conflicting worldviews, value systems, knowledge paradigms, and competing expectations to emerge with a sense of wholeness that adds value to all contexts
Supporting the determining of empowered and conscious cultural continuity.
We stand in solidarity with tangata whenua.
We believe in the power of the circle
Conversations that make a difference
Circles of support
Relationships of trust
Communities of care
Networks of connectivity
Powerfully mobilised collectives
Movements of change
We encourage intergenerational healing
We grow understanding of history for informed, integrated and empowered action.
Where, and when it is appropriate, we address intergenerational trauma and are guided by trauma-informed ways of working.
We grapple with intergenerational issues such as climate crisis and Te Tiriti, aiming for mindset shifts, ripple effects and waves of change.
We seek generational clarity - so that purpose and place in time is clear - in order to lead for our times, for our tūpuna and mokopuna, able to change things for generations to come.
We are focused on intergenerational impact
We Operate in a Mauli-informed Way
Centring the concept of mauli / mauri in understanding individual, collective, cultural, and environmental wellbeing
Honing the ability to be aware of and take care of mauli / mauri within self, others, nature, places, energy, patterns, seasons, cycles, environment
Developing practices of care, rituals of renewal and connectivity that enliven mauli / mauri within self, others, places, spaces, systems, collectives, the natural world, plants, species, creatures and all taonga
Centring Papatūānuku in all that we do
Increasing our capacity to operate from our essence
Restoring balance
We don’t bypass the personal
Focusing on the quality of our relationships vā with ourselves and what is happening in our loto / roto.
Holding space for inner work and individual growth.
Believing self-knowledge is essential to leadership.
Looking to the work that helps you understand what prevents you from operating from your essence.
Seeing your families as integral.
Teaching that self-care is necessary for sustainable and ambitious service.
What people are saying
“An epic waka journey filled with laughter, tears, joy and discovery.”
— Jack Scanlan, Social Work Lecturer, Massey University
“Mana Moana gifted me a kete of ancestral knowledge that I previously did not have, or hold, or felt I could reach out for.”
— Julia Arnott-Neenee, CEO and Co-Founder of Fibre Fale
“It has been transformational, life-changing, and overwhelmingly positive.”
— Belinda Betham-Rautjoki, Dispute Resolution Manager, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
“I feel more conscious and purposeful in my choices as a mother, a daughter, a wife, a friend and a leader.”
— Kathleen Tekura McGhie, Head of Learning and Public Programmes, Auckland War Memorial Museum
