Photo credit: QIane+co
Since 2021 SBN has been committed to activating Te Whakaoranga o Te Puhinui Rautaki (the Puhinui Regeneration Strategy). It’s a truly co-developed vision for long-term regeneration of the Puhinui and her communities.
Like any new venture, this has demanded agility and persistence in its early years. As the project continues to mature, it’s good to pause, reflect and share. Our intention is for the work we do and the insights we gain to create a more easeful journey for those embarking on similar adventures elsewhere in Aotearoa.
Redefining what success looks like has been critical. That’s partly about fully realising the deep impact this work is enabling to emerge in the local area. To align with and do justice to the many indigenous knowledge systems this project lives amongst, we’ve been challenged to think as much about how we proceed as what we achieve.
Outputs are measurable and tangible, but say nothing of the experience of those involved. Measuring and communicating progress against deeper values is a different challenge.
Our initial attempts to address this have involved an evolving mixture of indicator output metrics and personal stories. Our intention is to further develop this into a more integrated mode of evaluation in the coming year.
In the meantime, we’ve also been discovering the value of slowing down. Patience is a virtue, but often not a popular one in the world of fundraising and change-making. We’ve had to accept and advocate for the slow and steady reality of meaningful change. We’ve been reminded time and time again by the rangatahi who have been employed in this project to take time to sit, patiently, and observe the tohu, what the environment is revealing to us. In our context, this means the subtle signals from the complex political, social, and economic systems within which we operate. For all of our partners, these signs can become our teachers. They can instruct us to make deliberate, considered decisions if we take the time to listen. Often it has been in recognising these early signs or warnings where we’ve made the best decisions, while our worst oversights have occurred where we have missed them.
Perhaps most importantly, we’ve been developing our understanding and feel for when to get involved in community initiatives, and when to get out of the way. It’s a delicate dance. We’ve not always learned without missteps, even treading on a few toes.
We’re keen to contribute. But it's all too easy to find ourselves imposing ideas from far away, at the wrong time, or with other false assumptions. Our real job is merely to provide the resources and support considered useful for the local community to lead the way.
Whaea Donna Kerridge, a well-respected rongoā Māori practitioner and advocate reminds us “Don’t integrate, collaborate”. An insight we come back to often.