Kaitiakitanga

Kaitiakitanga Program and Network
Te Whaiti Nui-a-Toi children
guard and share Whirinaki,
their culture, language and values

Organic Project Leadership and program prioritisation:

Our Project Vision drives all our project activities:

"Our grandchildren will cherish Whirinaki Forest and the culture of its people; thanking us for preserving its richness and diversity for them to share with their grandchildren and all future peoples"

Organic and collaborative project leadership:

This vision of the state of wellness (Ora) we are wanting to get to drives all projects within the Kaitiakitanga program. Individual project activities that will make it happen are added to our project list which points to detailed information about each.

As members of an individual project team we manage our project using Tipu Ake leadership* concepts where we all share responsibility for making things happen. We start every project with research to ensure that the project is feasible and we are all committed to it before we start thinking about doing any physical work.

Organic project prioritisation: (The rotating door)

To manage the large number of highly interconnected possible project activities and tasks that could be running at the same time, often all using our limited community resources, we use the concept of the "rotating door".(We picked this idea up after observing our children while visiting the Auckland Museum)

We identify all possible activities and roll them in or out of our active list depending on the relative contribution to the overall program outcome (Ora), we collectively sense they will make at the time. Equally importantly we identify how they merge with local events, school / university semesters, seasons, field trips, curriculum activity, time free between seasonal contract work or other opportunities that exist in the school or community at the time.

By having all possible contributing projects listed we are constantly reminded of and understand the complex connections between them so we can see and exploit new opportunities as they arise. This stops us heading down dead end roads just because we earlier planned and committed ourselves to that path.

In some instances, the research or doing stages of a project activity may uncover information that would cause us to cancel, replace or markedly change a project. We get together and use the Tipu Ake collaborative leadership processes we have pioneered at our school to quickly resolve any ambiguity or conflict; always looking first for win-win solutions, rather than using compromise or individual executive decision making.

Organic Project Tracking:

We clearly understand as a group what outcomes we all are seeking and the indicators (often non analytical) that will tell us if our individual project is on track to deliver them. If not we turn our flag from green to amber or red on the common project list (see project list ) so that everyone else is informed and can help us resolve the issue We also keep details and the status of our own projects up to date on a web page established for each project which is open for all to read. This means that rather than having a central project office controlling everything we agree on a few top level milestones, then rely on the individual project teams (or sometimes separate organisations) physically doing the work to independently organise and manage their project or enterprise.

* Model developed in partnership with AUT volunteers and prototyped on AUT project management workshops see www.project-management-courses.co.nz

NOTICES AND ACHIEVEMENTS:

Our gift to you - download our Free Whirinaki Wall Calendar

What Andree a sustainability writer discovered about Kaitiakitanga

The Maori Youth Hikoi to Bioneers Conference, San Francisco 16 Oct 08
VIDEO "Redesigning our Future" - Youth Forum with Michael Braungart

Check out our school's Energy Monitoring / Weatherstation project
WEMZ - The Whirinaki Ecological Restoration Zone - a project with DOC
DOC partnerships information kiosk, Mangamate, Sanctuary(proposed)

Take a photo tour through our valley see restoration work needed
Ready to start - our Whirinaki Centre, Nursary and Recycling Projects
Blocked - Our project to upgrade our water supply in Minginui Mar 07
Thanks TPK for facilitating Govt support for Minginui initiatives

Celebrate what our friends at Hokianga Harbourcare are doing
Our Network's Mycorestoration Research Project - Fungi and mushroom
Our Lopez friends help Raglan initiate an affordable housing program

Thanks MfE for a big toxin cleanup on our millsites - July 07
Blocked - our Community Digital Strategy - Whirinaki Interactive 12/06
Prince Andrew adopts our Kiwi, Princess Beatrice on Mokoia Is Mar 07
Our network on the Kiwi Youth Voice learning journey to US. Mar 07
Our network at Youth Voice Digital Earth Summit on Sustainbility Aug 06
We welcomed Hunter Lovins 7-9 July 06, VIDEO view NZ tour resources
Thanks Waikato University for help with broadband 05
Thanks Housing Corp, house painting and marae restoration teams
Go Tramping in Whirinaki. See Kaka, Kiwi, Weka, Robin, Blueduck
Report Living Organisation workshops. Tipu Ake presented worldwide 05
Report Hikoi to Indigenous Knowledges Conf , Well, NZ. June 05
Thanks to UNITEC Architecture Students for help with town plans 04
Report on Sustainable Resources Conf, Colorado 04
Report on PMI Global Forum, Los Angeles Tipu Ake paper 04
Report on Sharing Indigenous Wisdom Conf, Wisconsin, June 04
Int and local visitors attend Tipu Ake Retreat March 04 See report
MPs Horomia and Mallard open our new merged area school Jan 04
Trip to Whaingaroa Env Gp Raglan, Jan04 learnings, VIDEO view