Whānau-led Systems Innovation Methodology and Practice

On the 31st of May we got invited to be a part of the whanau-led innovation methodology and practice at Clendon marae. Angie Tangaere, Donna Tewhiu and Roimata Taniwha-Paoo led us into sharing an evolving matauranga-centred practice for whanau-led systems innovation.

When we arrived, we got welcomed into the space and we got the chance to meet others from different teams such as counties manukau district health board and tamariki well-being, where we had whakawhanaungatanga to break the ice between us all.  After we built that rapport with each other we ended up dividing ourselves into different teams where we had to come up with three words that we would like to have on our kawa and in a way we weaved a whariki out of it to ground us all together.

We got the chance to deepen our understanding of the Hautu Waka when Angie ran us through a quick summary of what occurs within the different phases. We gathered around to have a discussion amongst our teams of what do we need to create a safe space for us to innovate and learn together, along with the key principles and values for a courageous learning space.

Throughout the whanau-led workshop we learnt to understand the importance of learning to put the voices of people and their lived experiences at the centre of what we do along, with depth of understanding to love the challenge of the complexity of our issue to help us expand our thinking to look at all aspects of the issue/problem we are facing. Co-design helps you spend your time figuring out what the complexity is, or the lived experiences of people is and investing in it to build a more understanding of what is happening.

- Matalena Fale (Junior Designer)