What we can learn from how Māori responded to COVID-19

We're in an interesting transition period at the moment.

In its response to COVID-19, New Zealand's health system really had to re-organise itself. It's now a far more connected – and better – system. There have been a lot of conversations taking place among NZTE businesses and across NZ Inc about how we can replicate that effect, that same level of leadership, across our economic sectors. What would it look like if we could apply that type of support system in a business sense? Can we be a better, more joined-up Aotearoa New Zealand?

As the pandemic approached, many Māori businesses and community groups coordinated their own crisis response. They didn't wait for the government to pick up the phone and talk to iwi. They knew that they wouldn't be at the heart of the response and to protect their communities they needed to initiate action themselves.

So, many iwi collectivised, using their contacts and resources to take responsibility for their people. (When I say "iwi", Māori don't always operate as an iwi, so it was often the hapū (the subtribes) and the marae associated with those subtribes who coordinated this response.)

Some contributed in kind (meat, fish), and some did it by way of dollar contribution. Armed with hand-sanitizer and toilet paper supplies, hundreds of volunteers, throughout the motu, mobilised make-shift distribution centres and began identifying the vulnerable within their communities.

For example, Ngāti Kahungunu in the Hawkes Bay were one of the very early movers. They've got a really big coastline, a really big footprint of people from Wairoa to Wairarapa, a commercial fishing operation, and a well connected local ecosystem. With fish shops closed and tangihanga (funerals) unable to go ahead, Ngāti Kahungunu saw an opportunity to utilise their customary catch to distribute to kaumātua (the elderly) and other vulnerable families.

Everyone was panic-buying but that's for people who have access to money. In the lower socio-economic bracket, where the majority are Māori, they live hand to mouth and have no way to go into supermarkets to stockpile.

This iwi also commissioned local people to manufacture sanitizers and toilet paper, so that they could be provided to those at risk. Then they looked at food parcels for families who couldn't get to supermarkets. They could see the signs early and immediately mobilised, working with Te Puni Kōkiri's support to build a major cooperative effort that spanned the region.
Now, different iwi have different capabilities, skill sets and resources, but this happened across many regions.

Ngāti Tūwharetoa organised food parcels and sanitation parcels that were distributed to three big marae for distribution to smaller marae, families and organisations. Volunteers packed boxes and made contactless deliveries throughout the rohe (region). Some farms and land trusts couldn't give home-kill food because of health and safety regulations, so they contributed money, both directly to those in need through applications processes and to local foodbanks.

And this was for the whole community, not just for Māori.

They also distributed supermarket vouchers, working through databases, starting with everyone in their region, then going out to those who are from that region but living elsewhere.

In the Tairāwhiti (East Coast) region, we saw whānau in remote areas operating check points on roads in and out of the region (working with local councils and police), to protect vulnerable communities with very little healthcare infrastructure.

At the checkpoint in Ruatorea, Hāti Nāti café closed during this time but catered free food and drink for the local volunteer workers. The local communities organised food packages and wellbeing checks to ensure that the health of those most vulnerable were also supported.

The result of supportive communities coming together within Te Tairāwhiti meant that they had the highest testing rate per capita with the lowest number of positive COVID-19 cases in New Zealand.

Ngāti Raukawa (my iwi) grouped themselves under a health banner with neighbouring iwi Muaūpoko and Ngāti Toa. It was great to see the cooperation amongst what have historically been rival iwi. We didn't have wealth to contribute but we formed a communication centre that connected people at a rūnanga, local and national level from the health, business, social development and education sectors. That meant we could get necessary information out to people. That was our koha to the community.

All of this unfurled at an iwi or regional level, starting at the centre and wrapping out. First, you look after your heart, the most treasured and important nucleus, your kuia and kaumātua and mokopuna.

Once that support system is in place, you wrap around a support system for the carers. The next layer is whānau who were unemployed or who had been laid off or had their jobs affected. Then, once the vulnerable are taken care of, you go out to your neighbours, and then out into other regions to see how you can support each other.

This is a very Māori way of approaching things because we work in a collective way.

Look at many of our whakataukī, the way we talk – nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi (with my food basket and your food basket, the people will be sustained). It's like when you say your pepeha:, you are the last thing that's talked about, because you're only the current version of all that's gone before you.

Going out to the most vulnerable first is a normal health response, but you do it for other reasons, too. In a Māori world view, you look after your elders not just because they are vulnerable, but also because they are the last, highest line of whakapapa.

And the babies? Well, everything is about them. Everything we do, every decision we make now, is actually for them and their children to come.

Of course, Western families think intergenerationally as well, but we tend to think about "waves of seven" [generations] rather than two or three. For Māori, this means you would take the shirt off your own back to protect those most in need. And yes, that can make you economically vulnerable, but it also means you have a different kind of strength.

A big issue with this COVID-19 response was the coordination. Who would down tools to coordinate this work, without funding? And not just for their own people, but for those under their wing?

Working collectively takes a lot of trust, but having shared Māori values allows us to get there quite fast. We know each other's whakapapa; we know what's important to each other, and across te ao Māori, those priorities are pretty much the same.

There were naysayers, no doubt about it, but you've got to remain strong for each other and let people's fear come out. You can't control fear; there's no way you should. You just have to show, rather than defend, actions.

The next big concern for many Māori businesses and organisations is about how to retain jobs and keep people who are key in their communities in employment.

That won't necessarily be a commercially sound decision in a mainstream sense, and we don't yet know the impact on the future viability and success of those companies. Certainly, success as we usually measure it will decrease because of those decisions. So the challenge for us is: how do we measure value differently to take into account those non-commercial drivers?

At NZTE, we think and talk about this a lot. These companies are thinking about the wider environment they operate in, their people, and about future generations, sometimes at the expense of profit.

As an organisation, we understand that, but it's a really hard thing to quantify. And even when you do have qualitative data, how do you use it?

That's the opportunity of this crisis, this chaos moment. COVID-19 provides us with the opportunity to look again at how we do things, how Aotearoa New Zealand's economy works and what changes will take place, now that we've have had this shake-up.

This more sustainable, long-term approach is obviously a good model for all kinds of businesses, and a large number of people are calling out for this values-based view of the world. So how can we encourage more of that, in a practical way?

At NZTE, we work with a wide range of Māori businesses and entities that take this approach, and when they succeed, their success is all the more impactful because of it, Often, it's stuff that brings you to tears because of the deep joy you get from the things that manifest.

Because we recognise that Māori businesses can often take a different route to success, we have a big Māori team and a much stronger understanding of the value of te ao Māori at a leadership level.

But that's never been the challenge. The challenge is: how do you influence everyone else in the middle? How do you shift a whole organisation's behaviour? How do you shift a nation into a values-based model?

It's not easy. Often, we make assumptions about what Māori want and need, and assumptions that all Māori want and need the same things, and then go back to our old ways of behaving, because that's what we know. It takes dedicated resources and people at an operational level to upskill or work with others across an organisation.

At NZTE, we're all very keen to make sure that Māori and Maori ways of doing business are at the centre of our own strategy and development. It's something we have to keep pushing and pushing.