Rawa Whare Noho Māori Māori housing resource

Homes and housing that allow Māori to live and thrive as Māori.

The Māori Housing Hub has been created to share current thinking and helpful resources and to advocate for homes and housing designed to acknowledge and respond to the needs and aspirations of Māori communities.

The Hub includes the following:

  • contemporary examples of papakāinga housing developments on whenua Māori;
  • examples of innovative design thinking for developing urban Māori housing on land held in general title;
  • links to existing Māori housing resources and Māori housing service providers operating in Tāmaki Makaurau   links to current Māori housing research, toolkits and policy

The Hub recognises and supports the tireless and passionate work in this area by the many Māori authorities, Marae, community groups, agencies and specialist groups across Tāmaki Makaurau and Aotearoa: 

Ma tini ma mano, ka rapa te whai

Māori Housing in Tāmaki Makaurau: A brief overview

Haere whakamua, titiro whakamuri – as we move forward, we acknowledge the past.

In 2020 the Māori population of Aotearoa is overwhelmingly urban, and nowhere more so than here in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Tāmaki Makaurau remains one of the most unaffordable property markets in Aotearoa, and Māori are amongst the groups most disproportionately affected by this unaffordability. Māori home ownership rates continue to fall steadily, and when combined with other challenges faced by Māori often results in limited availability of housing choices for whanau. This can lead to poor housing circumstances, which can in turn compound issues of equity, social, cultural and physical wellbeing for Māori in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Issues around providing appropriate housing to meet Māori needs are highly complex, and particularly in Tāmaki Makaurau where less than 1% of the takiwā remains in Māori title. The web of legislation and regulation created by central and local government agencies, financial institutions and service providers is complex, and can be both difficult and frustrating to negotiate for Māori trying to unlock the potential for housing on their ancestral whenua, let alone on land held by Māori under general title.

These challenges do not however dilute the aspiration of some Māori in Tāmaki Makaurau for their whanau to live together and thrive as Māori, in safe, warm, dry and healthy homes.

Traditional communal ways of living focussed on the wellbeing and security of the whanau offer much to consider in the design and development of contemporary housing solutions for Māori to live as Māori. This is a core area of focus for the Māori Housing Hub.

Papakāinga

A photo of the Turner whanau. They redeveloped their traditional quarter acre property, creating a multi-generational whare that accommodates four generations of their whanau under one roof.

They redeveloped their traditional quarter acre property, creating a multi-generational whare that accommodates four generations of their whanau under one roof.

Papakāinga may be described as Māori living together communally on ancestral whenua. Shared whakapapa to place and each other provides the bonds that tie together the members of a papakāinga. Traditionally papakāinga comprised multiple dwellings and communal facilities, and were commonly sited around resources and/or places of importance. In a contemporary sense, papakāinga provide Māori with opportunity to live according to that group’s social and cultural values, which may not be provided for through western models of housing and tenure.

Papakāinga developments can create opportunities to provide affordable, secure housing for whanau and hapū on ancestral whenua, and can foster greater economic independence and community resilience for these communities.

Kāinga Hou

This section showcases housing concepts that allow Māori to live, as Māori, in an urban context. They differ from papakāinga as all have been designed to be developed on land held in general title rather than on ancestral whenua held in Māori title. We have grouped them under the term Kāinga Hou.

Tāmaki Makaurau has the largest Māori population in the universe, yet ourhomes are overwhelmingly designed for western values and the western concept of the nuclear family unit. The Kāinga Hou designs have been created to inspire new design thinking for housing that accommodates Māori concepts of whanau and community, and which reflect Māori culture and values. The design concepts demonstrate a range of potential urban Māori housing solutions.

In developing Kāinga Hou we have worked with subject matter experts and kaumātua to develop a matrix of Māori housing values. These values form the foundation from which the following Kāinga Hou designs are developed and can be assessed against. The result is site-responsive housing designs which reflect Māori values, and which may also provide design solutions to the housing crisis facing many urban Māori in Tāmaki Makaurau

Māori Housing Values & Design Matrix

The design of the Kāinga Hou examples have been guided by seven Māori housing values and associated design principles and objectives.

 

These values, principles and objectives were developed with subject matter experts and kaumatua and combined to form a Māori Housing Values Matrix. The matrix provides a tool for interpreting the Māori housing values and delivering the values through tangible design outcomes. Applied in reverse, the matrix can be used as a tool for assessing how well a proposed design realises and delivers on each of the Māori housing values.

Examples of Papakāinga and Kāinga Hou in the real world.