Whāriki: The growth of Māori community entrepreneurship

Understanding what drives enterprise within an indigenous cultural space is not widely understood in New Zealand. Whāriki reveals how kin-based business ventures created by Māori have promoted social, economic and environmental wellbeing from the whenua (land) up.

Its core is eight case studies — some arising from iwi-driven ideas, some ideas from marae-based whanau. These range from a bee school in Northland, ginseng growing in the King Country, to the rehabilitation of Māori prisoners in Dunedin and a web-engaged response to accessing tribal marae.

Always reaching into ancestral ties and lessons to provide guidance and foundation for their ideas, these businesses are wrapped in cultural approaches that engage kin communities in improving the wellbeing of their iwi, hapū and whānau. This book explores the successes, the failures, the learnings and the futures of these opportunities for Māori.

• Merata Kawharu, Author

  Merata Kawharu (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi) is Research Professor at the Centre of Sustainability, University of Otago. Her most recent book was Maranga Mai! Te Reo and Marae in Crisis? In 2012 she was made MNZM for services to Māori education.

• Paul Tapsell, Editor

  Paul Tapsell (Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Raukawa) is Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, and researches in indigenous entrepreneurship and leadership, Māori identity and museum heritage. His other books with Oratia are Te Ara, with Krzysztof Pfeiffer and Pūkaki, translated by Scotty Morrison.