Indigenous Urbanism

Jade Kake

Indigenous Urbanism is a place-based storytelling podcast about the spaces we inhabit, and the community drivers and practitioners who are shaping those environments and decolonising through design.

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Top 10 Indigenous Urbanism Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Indigenous Urbanism episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Indigenous Urbanism for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Indigenous Urbanism episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Ōtautahi Revealed Pt 2

Indigenous Urbanism

11/15/18 • 20 min

EPISODE SUMMARY: In part two of our story on the Ōtautahi rebuild, we look at the work of Ngāi Tahu and Regenerate Christchurch to develop alternative uses for the residential red zone area to the east of the City, including the re-establishment of biodiversity and food gathering areas.

GUESTS: Teoti Jardine, Hugh Nicholson, Debbie Tikao, Te Marino Lenihan, Evan Smith

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake v/o: On September 4th 2010, February 22nd 2011, and many occasions afterwards, major earthquakes shook the city of Christchurch, allowing the old wetlands to temporarily re-establish themselves, and leaving swathes of land, especially to the east of the city, uninhabitable.

After its century-old Treaty of Waitangi claim was settled in 1999, Ngāi Tahu made quick work of restoring its political, cultural, and economic influence. However, Christchurch remained visually and culturally dominated by English aesthetics and values.

What’s happening in Christchurch today may be a world first situation, and in the wake of a devastating natural disaster, the local indigenous people are involved in the redesign of a city from the highest governance level right through to the actual physical reconstruction.

Teoti Jardine: The empty places behind you, and the empty places where we were, they were filled with street after street of empty houses. The people had gone, their houses were there waiting to be demolished. And it was coming up to our Matariki celebration, that was over in our other little area which was a Council playground. Where for the first time after the earthquakes, people were coming to plant again, and to reconnect with the land. So, now, I'll shut up and tell you.

It's called Rezoned.

Empty breezes wander streets
Where the windows of silent houses
Gaze without any expectations
There was no time for farewells
Only the hurried leavings
Come quickly, don't turn back
Nothing is left here now
Yet, around abandoned playgrounds
Children's laughter lingers
Making the invitation, to come
Grow, plant, forage
Among the stories of those who stayed
Singing, swimming, roosting
Through sunshine, rains and mist
Filling the breezes with hope

Kia ora koutou.

JK v/o: Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode twenty-two.

I’m your host Jade Kake and this is Indigenous Urbanism, stories about the spaces we inhabit, and the community drivers and practitioners who are shaping those environments and decolonising through design.

On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, part two of our story on the Ōtautahi rebuild, we look at the work of Ngāi Tahu and Regenerate Christchurch to develop alternative uses for the residential red zone area to the east of the City, including the re-establishment of biodiversity and food gathering areas.

TJ: Tēnā koutou katoa, Ko Teoti Jardine ahau, Ko Waitahi, ko Kati Mamoe, ko Kai Tahu oku iwi.

JK v/o: That was Teoti Jardine. Teoti is a poet from Ōtautahi and a kaumātua for the Avon-Ōtākaro network.

TJ: It wasn’t long, that in my connection with the red zone, that I realised I'm walking through the memories and the stories of my Waitaha, Kati Mamoe, Kai Tahu tūpuna. Who came here for hundreds of years gathering food, and gathering resources and teaching their children how to do this mahi. And, when they did this, they came and they greeted the rivers, they greeted the land, and the land nourished them, and their greetings nourished the land. And for me, those memories, those stories of my tūpuna, are in this land. And whatever happens to the red zone, those memories and those stories need to be honoured in whatever way it's possible. We've just seen how some of these stories can be honoured in the city. The red zone is a clean slate. No-one knows quite what to do with it. But for me, it's a place that holds those memories from hundreds of years ago, and those stories from hundreds of years ago. And they feel, now with my connection to the red zone, they feel like they are my memories now. And they are my stories. And whatever happens in the red zone, I would like to see some honouring of what those stories are. My tūpuna, my ancestors, we were the first ones to be red zoned. When the settlers came we had to move, and now they came and they built in the place where, our old people said why are they building here? This was our food basket. But, oh no, we'll drain it and build houses. Well, you can see what happened. And, for me, Ruaumoko has returned the land to us, and given us the opportunity to allow the land to return to its original purpose, which was a mahika kai, a place where we gathered food. We’ve seen downtown how those reflections of our tūpuna are happening now. They weren't there before the earthquake. So, honestly, the earthquake has given us this opportunity to place o...

Decolonising Porirua Pt 2

Indigenous Urbanism

10/25/18 • 20 min

EPISODE SUMMARY: In part two of our story on the Imagining Decolonised Cities project, we talk to some of the practitioners who were involved in a day-long, free public hui held at Takapūwāhia Marae in Porirua which invited public dialogue on the question - "what is a decolonised city?"

GUESTS: Lena Henry, Rebecca Kiddle

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake v/o: Our urban landscapes in Aotearoa New Zealand have been arranged and disciplined according to colonial values which favour private over communal land ownership. For mana whenua living in what have become urban environments, the city rose up around them, their land base eroded rapidly, acre by acre. They were pushed out, often forcibly.
New Zealand has a long history of seeking to contain and erase indigeneity in urban places, swiftly quashing any assertions of Māori sovereignty in the urban environment. The occupation of Takaparawhau in 1977 and the 1995 occupation of Moutoa Gardens are both notable examples in New Zealand history.

So what is a decolonised city anyway? And why does it matter?

Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode 19.

On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, part two of our story on the Imagining Decolonised Cities project, we talk to some of the practitioners who were involved in a day-long, free public hui held at Takapūwāhia Marae in Porirua which invited public dialogue on the question - "what is a decolonised city?"

The Imagining Decolonised Cities project was initiated by a team of academics from Victoria University of Wellington and members of Ngāti Toa Rangatira to stimulate discussion around what our cities might be like in the future if they were decolonised.

We spoke with Lena Henry, nō Ngāti Hine, a lecturer in planning at the University of Auckland, and one of the speakers at the symposium.

Lena Henry: I te taha o tōku pāpā, ko Otamaewa te maunga, ko Mahururoa te awa, ko Ngāti Toro te hapū, ko Ngāpuhi te iwi. Nō te kāinga Otaua. Ko Piki Te Aroha te marae. I te taha o tōku māmā, nō Ngāti Hine, ko Hineamaru te rangatira. Āe. Ko au tenei. Lena Henry.

JK: So as part of the Imagining Decolonised Cities project in Porirua, there was a one day symposium at Takapūwāhia Marae, that really just encouraged people to think about 'what is a decolonised city?' and what might it be like, and what is the process to get there? And there was a wide range of speakers talking about their mahi, and reflecting on that provocation. I just wondered if you could perhaps share some of your whakaaro around that topic? I think it was a really cool thing to provoke people to think and talk about this idea of a decolonised city.

LH: So first of all, I really appreciated the privilege of being able to present some ideas. And I like to use these opportunities as a way to reflect back what communities have said to me in the past. And so, the actual kaupapa of decolonisation has been one that has been talked about for a long time, and I guess the adding onto that, decolonising cities, has been the new addition to the kōrero about decolonisation. So it was really about understanding 'what is decolonisation'? Because I think what we've tried to do, primarily, is to indigenise. And then decolonise really fits well with planning, because it's about the structural dimensions, as well as talking about, how do we reconstruct or reclaim the processes of planning, and develop policies that will provide the types of outcomes that we're looking at. So, what I talked about then was really looking at, what are the aspirations, that I know of? That would represent a decolonised city. And I quickly started off with an interaction or discussion I had with our then five year old, Toa. Toa Slavomir. Where he was, we were down on Queen St, waiting for Helen to finish work, and he looked up at these, he was just looking around his environment, and I was looking at my phone, and he said, he just said to me, 'why don't they like us?' And I sort of stopped, and put my phone away, and I thought, what have I missed? And I go, 'who doesn't like us?' And he goes, 'why don't they like Māori?' and I thought, have I missed something, is someone looking at us? And then I said, why do you ask that? And he just pointed up to the signs. So he goes to a rūmaki reo class called Whānau Ata down at Freeman's Bay, and he was learning how to read Māori. And so, obviously he's waiting and he's trying to engage with his environment, his urban environment, Queen St, and he just said, 'why don't they like Māori?' And he pointed up at this signs. He goes, 'there's no Māori words. I don't know how to read that.' And, so it really is apparent to, yo...

Rangiriri Pā

Indigenous Urbanism

09/06/18 • 40 min

EPISODE SUMMARY: On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism we visit Rangiriri Pā, and the site of a new symbolic reinterpretation developed in reverence to the original pā footprint, and as a setting for continued education about the Battle of Rangiriri and the subsequent invasion of the Waikato.

GUESTS: Moko Tauriki, Dean Whiting, Sam Bourne

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake: If you look over to your right on State Highway 1, about 45 minutes north of Hamilton, you’ll see a site of cultural and historical significance. The wetlands and Pou mark the site of a pivotal battle in the 1863 Waikato land wars - The Battle of Rangiriri.

Dean Whiting: So where we're standing at the moment, Rangiriri Pā, so this was the pā that, where one of the major battles, Waikato-Tainui and the British troops that were coming through from Auckland. So there were a series of battles that happened down that line.

JK: In more modern times the significance of the site was overshadowed by the expansion of State Highway 1.

DW: There was a huge cutting through the space, that cut right through the centre of the Pā site.

JK: But now a collaboration between Waikato-Tainui, the New Zealand Transport Agency, and Heritage New Zealand has seen the repatriation of this significant site.

Sam Bourne: When the opportunity came up to re-align State Highway one, that also opened up this opportunity to reimagine and acknowledge the damage that had been done in the past to the pā site, but also make that lineal infrastructure in service to that cultural landscape, and the story of Rangiriri, and the story of the battle that took place there.

JK: Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode 12.

On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism we visit historic Rangiriri Pā, and the site of a new symbolic reinterpretation developed in reverence to the original pā footprint, and as a setting for continued education about the Battle of Rangiriri and the subsequent invasion of the Waikato.

We spoke with Moko Tauariki nō Ngati Naho, who was the Waikato-Tainui lead for the Project.

Kia ora Moko. Thank you so much for agreeing to be on the podcast. Just to start off with, ko wai koe? nō hea koe?

Moko Tauariki: Ko Taupiri te maunga, Waikato te awa, Waikato te iwi, Tainui te waka, Mourea te marae, Ngāti Naho te hapū, ko Moko Tauariki taku ingoa.

JK: Rangiri is a really significant site for Waikato and for all of New Zealand. Could you tell us a little bit about the significance of that site to your hapū and to your wider iwi?

MT: The significance of Rangiriri to Ngāti Naho, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Pou, Ngāti Mahut - Ngāti Mahuta ki uta - is that it's a place where many of our ancestors stood in defiance of an imminent invasion by the Crown, and basically made their sacrifices there. And so, it's significant to us today because we are actually the kaitiaki that takiwa, of that place, now. Which has been, I guess since the invasion of Rangiriri in 1863, has been under the ownership and the administration, if you like, of the Crown, right up until 2016 when we actually had that particular site handed back to Waikato-Tainui. The invasion into Waikato begins, if you like, at Mercer. That we currently know as Te Pina. And it's probably appropriate for me to focus a little bit on Te Pina, in terms of its significance to Te Puia. And so Te Puia, for many people would know her as the lady who established a cultural kapa haka group called Te Pou o Mangatawhiri. And that group was named after a significant that King Tawhiao did, prior to the invasion of Rangiriri, and he did that on the banks of a stream called the Mangatawhiri stream, which basically is a tributary to the Waikato river. And that became our aukati, or our landmark, and basically signalled to the Crown that you go past this particular landmark, where I have placed my pou, then you declare war. You declare an invasion into Waikato. And so in 1863, General Duncan Cameron, under the orders of Governor Grey, said, well up yours natives, we are the much superior power than you, so we will take this land by force. We challenge you to be rebellious against the Queen of England, and the inception of the Kīngitanga was certainly a threat to that. And so in the month of July, and in actual fact it was on the 12th of July of 1863, Te Pine, or Mercer, was invaded. They then continued to sack, or to invade, occupy other pā sites towards Rangiriri, and in particular Te Tiotio Pā, Te Koheroa Pā, and Meremere Pā. So these are all locations that anybody driving between Auckland and Rangiriri, they would naturally drive past these sites, without a second thought even...

Tāmaki Makaurau Cultural Landscapes Pt 2

Indigenous Urbanism

07/26/18 • 25 min

EPISODE SUMMARY: In part two of our story on Tāmaki Makaurau cultural landscapes, we look at how mana whenua are working with Māori designers to re-shape the City to better reflect their unique identity and culture, and to create a distinctive sense of place that benefits us all.

GUESTS: Lucy Tukua, Bernadette Aperahama

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake: The rural to urban migration that began after World War 2 saw a generation of Māori flock to the cities. But mana whenua in Tāmaki Makaurau never moved to the City - the metropolis that is Auckland has grown up around them, historically without their participation and often resulting in the destruction of settlements and important sites.

In recent years, mana whenua participation in development has increased exponentially. Tools like Te Aranga have supported mana whenua to work collaboratively as part of project teams to creatively reinterpret their own narratives and histories, and to apply these to the construction of new buildings and landscapes.

Lucy Tukua: Tēnā tatou katoa, i tū ana, maua i runga i te maunga a Maungarei, te tihi maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau. E whariki nei, ngā maunga e maha, ngā maunga i rongonui o Tāmaki, i te taha nei, ko te Wai-o-Taiki, e rere atu ra ki te Waitematā. Āe, me mihi hoki ki ngā tangata ngā tūpuna, ngā wāhi tapu, kei waenganui. He uri o hau o Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Whanaunga. I noho ana au e Papakura. Ko Lucy Tukua ahau.

JK: So we're standing here on top of Maungarei, looking out over the harbour and over the city, and it's a really beautiful clear, sunny day. So we've been very blessed with the weather. Could you tell me a bit about this place where we're standing, and what it means to you, and to your iwi of Ngāti Paoa?

LT: So Ngāti Paoa were at one point in time the dominant mana whenua iwi here in this particular area. The Pā site that they occupied is known as Mokoia Pā, which sits at the headland at the mouth of Te Kai a Hiku, the Panmure Lagoon. There were a number of Ngāti Paoa that resided here along the foreshore of the Wai-o-Taiki, and it was very well known for it's māra, for it's gardens. And Ngāti Paoa - in terms of their kaitiaki - was the taniwha Moko-ika-hiku-waru. So hence where Panmure Lagoon gets its name from - Te Kai a Hiku, shorted to Hiku, Moko-ika-hiku-waru. And, it's said that this kaitiaki used to corral fish into the Panmure Lagoon, and that's why it's called Te Kai a Hiku, the food bowl of Hiku.

As we know, the Tāmaki River, Te Wai o Taiki, was one of the important highways, State Highway 1 for our waka, back in the day, and also with the Tainui waka coming through this area, accessing the Manukau Harbour over the Otahuhu portage. It was a place where many lived, and interacted with other tribes. But also acknowledging that, Ngāti Paoa weren't the only occupiers of this area, and just acknowledge the other mana whenua in this area as well. I think in this day in age, a lot of people are really interested about the purakau and the cultural narratives of Māori, of mana whenua, and in particular, like the names of places and mountains and rivers. The harbour. You know, the beautiful story about Te Kai a Hiku. That was his food bowl.

Maungarei, about the sisters Reitū and Reipae. Like most good narratives, everybody's got their own story, but the story that I know is, so Reitū and Reipae, beautiful Waikato wāhine that were keen on a chief from up in the north. And so, they were on a mission to partner with this chief, and they summoned their kaitiaki, which was a manu. So this particular maunga is named after that event of them journeying up into the north, and coming here to Maungarei. So if we take that particular narrative, and the work that was done on the Auckland Transport project, the Panmure Station roofline represents the manu or the kaitiaki of those two wāhine.

JK: Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode 6.

In part two of our story on Tāmaki Makaurau cultural landscapes, we look at how mana whenua are shaping the city to better reflect the culture and history of place, and to promote a more responsible and regenerative ongoing relationship with our environment.

We spoke with Lucy Tukua, nō Ngāti Paoa raua ko Ngāti Whanaunga. Lucy has been a driving force behind the application of the principles from a mana whenua perspective.

We met with Lucy at Panmure Station, which is in shadow of Maungarei and is part of the first stage of the Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative.

LT: In my capacity as the Environment Manager for Ngāti Paoa I was involved in the Panmure Station quite closely, and the mana whenua that were invol...

Whangarei Urban

Indigenous Urbanism

07/05/18 • 20 min

EPISODE SUMMARY: On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, we visit Whangarei, Northland’s largest city to examine the role of carvers, visual artists and planners in creatively interpreting our cultural narratives and re-inscribing our identity as tangata whenua into the urban fabric.

GUESTS: Bernadette Aperahama, Te Warihi Hetaraka, David Badham

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake: Whangarei-Terenga-Paraoa. Named for the meeting place of the chiefs, and the historic waiting place of Reipae. But when you look around Whangarei City, there isn’t much that locates us and reflects our identity as tangata whenua.

Bernadette Aperahama: I don’t see that Whangarei, visually, looks like a Māori City. I mean the people, of course. It's not represented in the built environment, and that's sad to me. It must sad for our people, and it must sad for our tangata whenua. How do they see themselves in the actual City?

JK: That was Bernadette Aperahama, nō Ngāti kahu ki Whangaroa raua ko Te Arawa. Bernadette is a planner living and working in Whangarei.

BA: I think there is quite a lot to change in terms of how we enable Māori to be represented in this whole district, from an actual governance representation in our political landscape within local government, all the way through staff, within government agencies, seeing more Māori faces in here, and building the capacity of staff to work with Māori, all the way through to having in a proactive space a values system, and having our tangata whenua represented in the entire spectrum. We’re really lacking in that

I don’t see Māori in the built environment, if that's where the focus is. and I don't think the hau kāinga would see themselves in the built environment. And I don't think our hau kāinga would see themselves having much influence at this stage through the entire development of what this City looks.

JK: Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode three.

On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism we visit Whangarei, Northland’s largest city, to examine the role of carvers, visual artists and planners in creatively re-interpreting our cultural narratives and re-inscribing our identity as tangata whenua into the urban fabric.

To learn more about the potential for expression of tangata whenua identity through public art, we sat down to have a kōrero with Tohunga Whakairo Te Warihi Hetaraka.

Te Warihi Hetaraka: Ko Te Warihi Hetaraka tōku nei ingoa. Nō Whangaruru au, ahau wā i tipu ake au ki Whangaruru i whānau i ahu kei Whangarei hōhipera. My name is Te Warihi. I'm from Whangaruru. I was born in Whangarei. So yeah, Te Uri o Hikihiki. Raised out in Whangaruru. Grew up there, then left home when I was sixteen to go to Rotorua to learn whakairo. I was chosen then. That's why that connection to all the tribes is important, because when I was sent away, I was sent to represent all of the tribes or hapū of Tai Tokerau.

It’s the re-establishing of our carved meeting houses and our marae complexes that will help us regain our identity as Māori, I feel. In fact, I know it will. And it was partly the reason why I was sent away, was to bring that back to Northland.

JK: We met with Te Warihi at the site of the proposed Hihiaua cultural centre, located on the Hihiaua Peninsula in central Whangarei. The project is slated to be a significant statement of tangata whenua identity in the City, and once complete, the precinct will include a performance stage, conference centre & theatre, and an exhibition hall. Currently there’s an existing boatshed on site, which houses an office and a carving workshop.

TWH: The idea of developing the cultural centre came from our rangatira and our elders, Whangarei back in the day. It first started around about 1980, but they didn't really start to talk about it until 1993, when they were developing the town basin. But the original people that raised it were Charlie Kake, Jimmy Pou, Violet Pou, Hane Kingi, Sissy Pitman. There was over forty or so kaumātua from around Whangarei. So those are just a few of the names of the elders, that's both Charlie and Ben of course, were involved at the beginning.

I think it was mostly because they saw that our younger generation weren't sort of involving themselves in their culture or their tikanga. But also that period too, kapa haka and all of that sort of stuff started to spring up. All the tikanga stuff started to drop off. So they saw the cultural centre, in their minds the cultural centre was a place where our people could re-establish their identity as Māori. It was in 1993 when the Council asked for Māori input to the development of the town bas...

Kaihū Housing Repairs

Indigenous Urbanism

07/05/18 • 27 min

EPISODE SUMMARY: On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, we travel to the Kaihū in the Kaipara to learn about a tribal-led programme to improve living conditions for whānau through essential housing and infrastructure repairs.

GUESTS: Mihiata Te Rore, Tania Moriarty

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake: Poor quality housing is just one of the realities of living in rural Northland. For many of our hau kāinga, the pride and sense of identity associated with living on their own whenua is often coupled with the challenges of keeping their whare warm, dry, and safe for their whānau.

Mihiata Te Rore: Here as we walk into the kitchen, I had a couple of jacks underneath the house here because that was a bit unstable so that the fridge would wobble, and the stove would wobble.

JK: Have the piles rotted away or something like that?

MTR: I don't know, it's not the piles, because the house has only been here for ten years, it was actually the actual boards

JK: It might have been the bearers, or the joists, if it's not the posts themselves

MTR: Yeah it's not these ones, it was the ones that run underneath the house

JK: Have they rotted?

MTR: They were rotted, the were rotted. Like, there was one that went along here I think, and it was just totally rotten, and it went one along here

JK: So you had to replace that with the car jacks

MTR: Yes, this whole floor has been replaced, but prior to that it was three jacks along here, I think maybe 3-4 jacks, and that was just holding it up

JK: Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode two.

On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism: We visit Mihiata Te Rore nō Te Uri o Hau [delete] at her whare on ancestral Māori land in Kaihū, located in the Kaipara district of Te Tai Tokerau. Patrick Gemmell reports.

Ko Mihiata Te Rore ahau, ko Kaihū tuturu kāinga, ko Kaihū te awa, ko Maunganui te maunga, ko Ripiroa te moana, Te Roro te iwi.

Patrick Gemmell: I guess we want to start with whereabouts we are in the world, and a little bit of your upbringing here in Kaihū

MTR: Yeah I'm in Kaihū, we're about 30km north of Dargaville, and more or less at the foot of the Waipoua Forest, that's going towards north. I was practically born and raised here. Sort of came away from down the line, from Tokoroa, and came here when I was about 6. My father brought us home, nine of us, all nine children. And I was sort of raised here in the area. And got older, moved away. Father passed away and then we all sort of moved away, got married. And some of us came home, some of us didn't, and I decided about ten years ago that I was coming home.

PG: Coming home is one thing, but coming home to where your ancestors have been brought up and back to your own Māori land, how important was it to you to come back to that as well?

MTR: It was very important. That was one of my main feelings to come home. You just feel it, it's ancestral land, this goes back to, I must be the 5th, 6th generation. I've got grandchildren, and they've all been here as well.

The land is here, the chief here was Te Rore, and from Te Rore he came down from Taho, and that's one of the rangatira for this area, for Te Roro. And from Taho, Te Rore, which is my tūpuna. And from him was Raniera, and he's buried over here, that's the third chief down, and that's my great-grandfather, so. My grandfather was raised here, my father was raised here, I've been raised here, I've raised my children here, so, that's quite a... that's a major legacy to me. And to actually be able to come home, and be here.

PG: What were some of the motivating things that really drove you to come back and put this whare back on the land, and when you did that, what were some of the issues that you ran into?

MTR: If I go back to almost 30 years ago, I'm 55 this year, I would have been 16, 17 years old when I eventually left this area, got married, and then came back. It was only the homestead, and another relative way down there. His house, down there. These were the only houses here. These ones in between the one over there, they weren't here, but as the years went by whānau came home, and it just felt that sense of belonging, the need to come house. Because my father had passed away, and the need to come home was stronger as I got older and my kids started to get older and my mokopuna arrived. That was the need that pulled me home. And be part of the valley, to be part of the land. Like that bush up there, I still remember years, when we were children, and our father would take us to there, and we were all self-sustained. We didn't buy butter, we made butter....

In Conversation with Kevin O'Brien

Indigenous Urbanism

09/13/18 • 23 min

EPISODE SUMMARY: On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, we speak with Kevin O’Brien, an architect from the Meriam and Kaurareg people of the Torres Strait, Australia. In his work, Kevin has explored a wide range of architectural processes that consider the emptying of the city in order to reveal Country.

GUESTS: Kevin O'Brien

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake: Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode 13.

On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism we speak with Kevin O’Brien, an indigenous architect practicing in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Kevin belongs to the Meriam and Kaurareg peoples of the Torres Strait, a group of islands located in north-eastern Australia.

To kick off, could you tell me who you are, where you're from, and what you do?

Kevin O'Brien: My name is Kevin O'Brien. I'm a descendant of the Kaurareg and Meriam people from the Torres Strait. I'm an architect, practising in Brisbane, and I’m Professor of Creative Design at the University of Sydney.

JK: How did this relationship and collaboration internationally start? And how is this kind of sharing and dialogue influenced your practice?

KOB: So I think this set of relationships that have developed for me have taken almost 20 years to happen. It started with a guy called Rewi Thompson, up in Auckland, but we actually met in Sydney at a student conference back in the late 90s. And at the time I was working with one other Aboriginal man in Australia, also in Sydney, another architect. And at the time we were the only two. And then we met Rewi, and we thought, oh maybe there's three of us. And we hadn't at any point really looked outside of where we were in Sydney. We were quite young at the time, and we were just trying to get by. Then as we met Rewi we met other people over here, and then slowly but surely over the last 20 years it's been sort of dripping, dripping, dripping, dripping, and the dripping's turning into a bit more of a flow now. And finally, sort of early 2000s we started to meet people up in Canada and the States, and the network sort of started to... you know, it was nice and social and easy and it's just sort of grown and grown. And then I think in the last 12 months it hit some kind of tipping point, which was fantastic, because it's ended up in a really big sort of critical mass between Australia, New Zealand and Canada. One of the fruits of that growing is I think this book that's just about to be published.

JK: Something that is a recurring theme between our countries being settler-colonial nations is this real tension between rural and hau kāinga, like home communities, that might be quite geographically isolated from the urban centres where a lot of our people now live. So I'm just wondering, how do you kind of navigate that as an architect, and how your approaches might be different on Country versus being in these colonised cities.

KOB: I think in the Australian setting, we've got a quilt work of Aboriginal countries across the continent, and then in understanding that, then it's easy to understand the two roles, or the two hats we wear, as architects. Because one is as a professional architect, in the modern sense, but there's something that informs that in terms of an obligation as an Aboriginal man, and that is that you have expectations and cultural obligations. And one of them is to understand precisely what Country you're standing on, before you do anything. Once you're aware of that as a starting point, it does two other things. One is it helps you to look inside yourself and understand who you are, but more importantly, you can only really do that if you have genuine relationships with the people of that place. So once those things are kind of set out, and they develop over time as well, the architecture can then be enabled and followed. So, what I tend to find is, from observing other people and other architects and how they practice, they tend to strike difficulty when they don't have those relationships, or they don't know themselves, or they try to impose work onto a community or onto a place.

JK: And they imagine maybe sometimes a cultural blankness, I think that comes with being, you know, a colonising group.

KOB: To be honest, it's not bound to one culture or the other. I've seen this [from] fellow Aboriginal people, and also non-Aboriginal people. And, it's not one easily explained, but in my experience I've seen some of that occur purely out of, not a lack of maturity, but someone who's in the process of maturing, and they're finding out or starting from a point of naivety, but they're on a search to get to another place. And inevitably, mistakes...

Waimārama Papakāinga

Indigenous Urbanism

09/27/18 • 18 min

EPISODE SUMMARY: On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, we continue our haerenga across the Hawke’s Bay to visit a new five house papakāinga development, on the hills of beautiful Waimārama, which for the Renata whānau has been an opportunity to get back to their tūrangawaewae, and to reconnect with their marae and each other.

GUESTS: Paora Sheeran, Eru Smith, Brenda Tatere

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake: Picturesque Waimārama. A beautiful seaside community, a place of halcyon summer days, hot chips and ice cream. But it’s not just a lovely holiday destination, it’s also the home of the Ngāti Hikatoa, Ngāti Kurukuru, Ngāti Urakiterangi, and Ngāti Whakaiti hapū of Kahungungu.

In the 1860s the original Waimārama Block, some 35,000 acres, was leased to two European farmers. The promotion and development of Waimārama as a beach lifestyle area started in the early 1900s, when the large farming stations were broken up to create a beach settlement area. Today, the parts of the original Waimārama block that have been retained in Māori ownership are mostly leased out to Pākehā farmers.

For the Renata whānau, the development of papakāinga on their ancestral land is an opportunity to get back to their tūrangawaewae, and to connect with their marae and wider whānau.

Paora Sheeran: If we look over to the right over here, we’ve got a homeowner who moved over from Dannevirke - and I don't know if you remember on the opening day here back in March 2017, and our kaumātua got up and spoke and said that we've been able to return home, you know, so after about I think it was three generations ago, it might have even been four, they had to move away for farming reasons, and now one of the great-great-mokopuna has come back to Waimārama. And not only for her, with that brings back the other whānau.

JK: That's huge.

PS: Yeah, and that's what can happen in papakāinga. There's the hard items, like the houses, the infrastructure, and then there's also the add-on cultural, social benefits.

JK: Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode 15.

On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism: We travel to Heretaunga to visit a new five house papakāinga development, on the hills of beautiful Waimārama. We spoke with Paora Sheeran, a key driver of papakāinga activity in the Hawke’s Bay.

PS: He mihi poto tenei kia a koutou, ko taimai ki Kahungungu nei, otira nō ki Waimārama te whenua nei, tenei whenua o te papakāinga o te whānau Renata, koira te tino tīpuna Renata. Nā reira nau mai. Nau mai haere mai, nau mai hoki mai. Ko wai tenei? Ko Takitimu te waka, ko Ngāti Kahungunu me Ngāti Pahauwera ngā iwi. Ko Rakau Tatahi me Te Rongo a Tahu ngā marae. Ko Ruahine te pai maunga. Ko Te Rangi Tapu Owhata te taumata. Ko Whatumā te waiu. Nā reira, titahi whakatau ki o tou matou nei rohe. Ko Puara kei runga, ko Whatumā kei raro. Tihei, mauri ora. Ko Paul Sheeran tōku ingoa. So we’re in Waimārama, which is in Hawke's Bay, Kahungunu. As you can see it's coastal, we're right on the beach there. This is the Waimārama 3A1C2 Incorporation, and this is their papakāinga.

JK: So we’re up on the hill, overlooking the Ocean. Is that their marae down there?

PS: Yes, we've got the marae in the background there. So that was part of the reason why this was such a great site, because the incorporation actually owns a number of lands. And so with the marae just across the road, papakāinga, I think there's a kohanga reo over at the marae as well. So it just, you know, the infrastructure works.

JK: And how many acres or hectares?

PS: Probably looking at 7 hectares for this block.

JK: So the incorporation owns this block as well?

PS: Correct. And then they have a number of other blocks they lease out as well.

JK: Awesome. What are the kind of business things they've got?

PS: Mainly leasing for grazing. As with a lot of Māori freehold land, quite often they’re uneconomic parcels. So, unless you can pull together whānau land around you, or work it a bit more intensely, then you're really just leasing out to the local farmer.

But they chose this site because of the location with the marae, with the Waimārama township as well. Cause of the contours as well. You know, it's got a lot of character, this whenua. When the houses were designed, every kitchen window looks out at Motu-o-kura, which is their maunga, you know, their motu. So that was one of the design features that was sort of incorporated in the house design. So then when all the tamariki are doing the dishes they can talk about their motu. It was a good site. They’ve actually got resource consent to build 20 homes u...

In Conversation with Elisapeta Heta

Indigenous Urbanism

08/02/18 • 33 min

EPISODE SUMMARY: On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, we speak with Elisapeta Heta nō Ngāti Wai, an architectural graduate working at Jasmax. Elisapeta is also an artist and academic, and has held various significant advocacy roles.

GUESTS: Elisapeta Heta

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake: Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode 7.

On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, we speak with Elisapeta Heta nō Ngāti Wai, an architectural graduate working at Jasmax. Elisapeta is also an artist and academic, and has held significant advocacy roles, including her previous role as Co-Chair of Architecture Women, and current role as the Ngā Aho representative to the New Zealand Institute of Architects Board.

We caught up with Elisapeta at the Jasmax offices in Parnell.

JK: Ko wai koe? Nō hea koe? Where are you from, and who are you?

Elisapeta Heta: I am from many places actually. On my father's side I'm from up north, and a little bit south of here, so nō Ngāti Wai ahau, me Waikato-Tainui, and on my mother's side I am Samoan, Tokelauan, and English. So she's first generation New Zealander, whatever that means. Her mother was born in Apia, and her father was born in Portsmouth in England. So, from everywhere. Ko Elisapeta Hinemoa Heta ahau. I'm an architectural graduate at Jasmax, but I'm also part of a roopu here called Waka Maia. We are three architectural graduates, who run a lot of the - for want of better words - Māori navigation type stuff for projects. So we have boldly given ourselves the title of Kaihautū Whaihanga, so Māori design leaders within the practice.

JK: And so you find yourself in a really large firm, being one of a few Māori practitioners. So could you talk a little bit, just about that experience.

EH: Yeah, for me, for starters, it's quite funny as a graduate I think you sort of assuming you are going out into the world begging somebody to take you on as some kind of strange liability to them, or something. But I was very deliberate about choosing to want to come and work with Jasmax. And that was partly because Jasmax had a known reputation for working on community projects that involved Māori that I was really intrigued by. A lot of that was led and run by Ivan Mercep, who's since passed away. But he had quite the legacy, effectively, with Māori communities, with Māori projects. Even though he wasn't Māori himself, and had mentored Brendan Himona and sort of a little bit at the end there as well, Rameka Tu'inukuafe, who are both my colleagues in Waka Maia. Jasmax I think, sort of had a cultural capacity, shall we say. It had an understanding. It had a bit of - when I sort of found out the history of why Jasmad began, little bit of a radical sort of beginnings, and wanting to make the city a better place. And I suppose that's considered radical sometimes.

JK: Shockingly

EH: Shockingly, yeah. Protesting against motorways being built in ridiculous places, and all sorts of things like that. So, I think Jasmax just had, there was an inbuilt sort of sense for me, from the outside looking in, that it was something I could get in on. It's hard, I think, to build cultural capacity from scratch. Knowing that there were Māori colleagues already here that were trying to make things happen, that was sort of a nice transition, I suppose. It had some momentum, it had some legs. I came on at a time that Haley Hooper, another Māori wahine, had also joined Jasmax only six months prior to me starting here, so there ended up being four of us, which was a little bit of a bubble. And we, I think in sort of a momentum, kind of riding the wave of a whole lot of things happening outside of the office. So, the first time Māori had ever met officially with the NZIA had happened at the same time, and there were talks about the kawenata which eventually comes into being later on, I suppose, in the chronology of my life. So, being here, or coming here to Jasmax was kind of wanting to push myself where I thought was really important, with the kind of powerhouse that this already had, I suppose. Nothing's perfect, everybody, every group, every collective, every office, has things they can do better. I think that's what's been pretty amazing, personally from my point of view, is the willingness of this office to actually let us roam a little bit far, and then come back, and sort of genuinely start to initiate and embed a lot of the things that we thought were important from a te ao Māori point of view into business as usual at this practice. Which is pretty amazing, steering a ship of - you know last year it was over 300 people. So, you'd think change like that would take a lo...

In Conversation with Cheyenne Thomas

Indigenous Urbanism

11/22/18 • 18 min

EPISODE SUMMARY: On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, we speak with Cheyenne Thomas, an architectural designer from Peguis First Nation, about her work with First Nations communities in Manitoba, and her role as a designer and advocate.

GUESTS: Cheyenne Thomas

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Jade Kake v/o: Tēnā koutou katoa

Nau mai haere mai ki te Indigenous Urbanism, Aotearoa Edition, Episode twenty-three.

On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, we speak with Cheyenne Thomas, an architectural designer from Peguis First Nation, about her work with First Nations communities in Manitoba, and her role as a designer and advocate.

Cheyenne Thomas: I am Anishanaabe, Ojibwe, that's my tribe. From Manitoba, Canada. I grew up in Winnipeg, my whole life, and my family is from Peguis First Nation and Saugeen First Nation, and I'm a designer in architecture, and I also do installations at a bigger scale with my father, who's also a designer. The focus is Indigenous design, and so that's who we try to work with.

JK: So we were really excited to meet you this time two years ago, when you and your dad came over, and you met all of us, this Ngā Aho crew, and we started this awesome journey together. But it was really exciting for me just to meet another young woman just smashing it. And then we went over to see you again last year. And so, I just wanted to maybe ask you a little bit about your practice and projects over back home, and what are some of things you're working on, and how have you kind of connected that with some of the exchange and experiences we've had?

CT: Okay, so, I did two buildings with my dad, we designed. They're 75,000 square foot buildings for two different First Nations in Manitoba. That was in the process when we met, two years ago. From that, we worked on the Assiniboine Park, revitalisation of the whole park, which is 1,000 acres in mass. They have a massive building, and a couple gardens. Part of it was to have an Indigenous garden, where they brought me and my dad on as lead designers. From when we did meet at the last hui, there was, it was more than just a conference, it was more people together, not so formal, where we could really connect without the labelling of architect, landscape architect, industrial designer. Where you actually have a collective of people just kind of supporting you, and from that there was different things we did during the conference, like sing songs, eat together, feast together, sleep together in the same marae. So for the Assiniboine Park I tried to architect the process, where we consulted with my community, our communities in Manitoba. So I got them to, I brought singers in, I brought food in as a component, to eat together, have discussions while you're nourishing your body. And those are all inspired by my experience at the last hui.

JK: I'm hearing that community-based process is really important, and the way we kind of bring in our own cultural lens and way of doing and being into that process with our communities. What was the process of engagement for that community project? How did that come about, actually?

CT: So that project, it actually, that park has been there for hundreds of years. And it's a European park. So they wanted to revitalise it, and they had the big building, designed by KPMP in Toronto, and they also had a couple gardens. The head of the park went to a community presentation, and this one Native girl said, I do not see myself in this park at all. So, she took, that was a pivotal moment for her, in the project. And for the Indigenous gardens, knew that was really important to have Indigenous designers. So, approached my dad and I, to start discussing and imagining this process of bringing our people into this consultation process.

JK: Now you talked about your dad a bit, and so it's pretty amazing the two of you work together quite closely on a lot of projects. Was your dad a big part of the reason why you got into architecture, or what kind of led you into architecture?

CT: I guess I was exposed to architecture, not just architecture, I was exposed to design, creativity, the whole creative process. Which at the time was not named the creative process. It was just exploring different ways of expressing building, and moving things around, creating or designing your own spaces to excite your childhood imagination, right? So I grew up with having that. Big pads of paper to draw on, this very loose way of moving around, and expressing yourself. So when I got older, went to University, all these courses I took. They weren't as exciting to me, they seemed very, not that there's anything wrong with those, I just grew up a totally different way, ...

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How many episodes does Indigenous Urbanism have?

Indigenous Urbanism currently has 25 episodes available.

What topics does Indigenous Urbanism cover?

The podcast is about Architecture, Design, Urbanism, Podcasts, Indigenous and Arts.

What is the most popular episode on Indigenous Urbanism?

The episode title 'In Conversation with Cheyenne Thomas' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Indigenous Urbanism?

The average episode length on Indigenous Urbanism is 26 minutes.

How often are episodes of Indigenous Urbanism released?

Episodes of Indigenous Urbanism are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Indigenous Urbanism?

The first episode of Indigenous Urbanism was released on Jun 17, 2018.

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Indigenous Urbanism

Jade Kake

Top 10 Indigenous Urbanism Episodes

FAQ

How many episodes does Indigenous Urbanism have?

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