Flipping the Script on Policy Making – Exploring an Indigenous-Led, Place-Based Learning Approach

Flip the script on policy making – exploring an indigenous-led, placed based learning approach This workshop introduces Niho Taniwha, a place-based systems learning approach developed in Aotearoa New Zealand. Niho Taniwha aims to help shift public sector commissioning, policy and capability towards 'bottom-up' ways of working. Niho Taniwha centres mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and indigenous ways of knowing, in combination with western knowledge and the lived experience of families and communities. Public servants are often familiar with evaluation methodologies that focus on individual interventions. Niho Taniwha shifts this perspective, supporting collective learning across place-based innovation activities to identify the conditions needed to support effective local responses. It emphasises that the responsibility for actioning learning and evidence for change sits not just with communities but also within the public sector system. Public sector teams are partners in a learning and implementation process, flipping the script on policy-making.

The workshop will share the key dimensions and practices of Niho Taniwha and examples of how it has been applied. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with core aspects of the framework and connect it to their own contexts. Join this workshop to explore this indigenous-led, place-based approach to systems learning.

By Auckland Co-design Lab.