Mānawatia a Matariki: Reflect, Learn and Plan Ahead

Mānawatia a Matariki: Reflect, Learn and Plan Ahead

Co Authored by Frae Cairns

Ko Pōhutukawa

Ko Tupuānuku

Ko Tupuārangi

Ko Waitī

Ko Waitā

Ko Waipunarangi

Ko Ururangi

Ko Hiwa-i-te-rangi

Ko ngā mata o te Ariki, Tāwhirimātea. 

Matariki, e ara e.

Mātauranga Māori has been brought to the fore with the celebration of Matariki nationally. With raised awareness, we are starting to see more whānau, communities and workplaces celebrating Matariki. It’s a prime time where organisations are sparked to think about buying from Māori suppliers which is fantastic.

When thinking about planning these events we should pay attention to where our pūtea (money) is being spent as well. 

Here are some ways you can support Māori businesses this Matariki:

1. Don’t just wait until Matariki to spend with Māori businesses. 
2. That’s it. 

Yes, get a Māori caterer to do your event for Matariki - and every event throughout the year. Yes, get a Māori photographer and videographer to capture footage - and use them throughout the year as well.  Yes, get a Kapa Haka group for entertainment, they’re great for every function.  Yes, get Māori gift packs, they’re also great options for staff leaving, christmas, baby celebrations etc.

You get the gist. 

Whilst this is a bit of a tongue in cheek opening, the key message is that we absolutely should buy Māori this Matariki, but we don’t need to wait until Matariki to buy Māori. We can do this throughout the entire supply chain, 365 days of the year. What Matariki provides is a special time to reflect on the year that has been, to find ways to learn and to plan for the new year ahead.

With that in mind, here are some ways you can support Māori businesses this Matariki AND throughout the year:

1. Huritao - Reflect 

Matariki presents an opportunity to intentionally reflect and think about how well your organisation has engaged with Māori businesses in the past. Think about what businesses you buy from across all spend categories. 

Who maintains your buildings, who does your companies comms and marketing, who does your IT support, who does your office fitout, who does your staff professional development? 

As a starting point, assessing your company's current spend with Māori businesses in order to grow is a valuable task that can provide tangible insights for the year ahead. If you suspect that your organisation does not spend that much, now is a great time to dig into the numbers and see what you are working with. 

Interrogating your baseline and understanding where you can easily improve your engagement with Māori businesses is a great way to reflect during Matariki. Often just having this data is a great way to demonstrate to the organisation at large why change is needed.

2. Ako - Learn

Matariki is also a good time to think about how your organisation could upskill to be able to better engage with and procure from Māori businesses as well as look at developing Te Ao Māori capability across your organisation more generally. 

That may be learning Te Reo Māori, understanding Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori Procurement, Māori engagement, Tikanga — Matariki is a great time to start to learn and develop new skills.

Being genuine with your engagement of Māori businesses means understanding why they may not be able to easily access your opportunities. Often improving your organisation's cultural capability first is a great start to being able to unlock more opportunities for Māori businesses.

3. Anga whakamua - Plan ahead

Now is the time to plan and set goals to create Māori outcomes within your organisation. 

Delivering outcomes for Māori through procurement is not yet the default for most, so it needs to be designed into your work and strategically built into the projects and programmes your organisation delivers.

This may be thinking about setting some meaningful Māori business spend targets to ensure Māori businesses have equitable access to contract opportunities with your organisation or setting time aside to meet with a target amount of Māori businesses to understand their capability and support their growth through contract opportunities. 

Think about the long term rather than one off opportunities so that you can genuinely partner with Māori owned businesses. There are capable Māori businesses across all industries that can provide goods, services and works throughout the year.

Mānawatia a Matariki!

Whether you are celebrating Matariki by sharing kai as an organisation or using this first public holiday as a time to learn about Matariki, it is the perfect time to cease the opportunity to engage with Māori businesses and plan for more meaningful partnerships throughout the year. 

“Ka mahuta a Matariki ki te pae, me he kōkiri wawata” - Matariki rises in the horizon, a sign to keep positive momentum. Keep looking forward.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Article Series

This article is part of a series of thought pieces on the topics of social procurement and supplier diversity.  

This series focuses on how individuals and organisations can use their procurement power to deliver impact, the growing profession of social/sustainable procurement professionals wanting to make a difference and how we can redefine value in Aotearoa collectively.

The aim is to share our learnings and insights to help grow this movement.

Authors

Frae Cairns (Ngāti Kahu, Te Aupōuri) 

Frae grew up in Kaikohe and Tāmaki Makaurau supported by a whānau of wahine toa and imbued with an ethic to create positive change for her community. She has had a number of roles in the retail sector in management, sales, international shipping and operations. After living in Canada and Japan she went on to work in procurement for Auckland Council where she supported the development of the Auckland Council Sustainable Procurement Objectives. This led her to support the establishment of He Waka Eke Noa, now Amotai, where she currently works. Frae is passionate about social equity and delivering impact through procurement activity to enable greater opportunities for Māori and Pasifika.

Kahurangi Malcolm (Ngāti Te Ata, Te Waiariki)

Kahurangi was schooled in total immersion Māori at Te Raki o Pukekohe and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Waiuku. She holds a Bachelor of Science and Master’s in Business Administration and completed her research on Māori Economic Development. She previously worked for Waikato’s Economic Development Agency supporting business growth and has held numerous roles in health and social services. Kahurangi founded the Charitable Trust, Te Ara Rangatahi, a youth organisation supporting youth in Franklin, South Auckland into education and employment. Kahurangi is passionate about systemic change and loves seeing Māori businesses succeed.