Te Oranga ō Hinemoana | Oceans and Climate

Preparing for what is coming

Te Oranga ō Hinemoana is the Oceans and Climate pou (pillar) of Te Tira Whakamātaki. This pou prepares our communities for what is coming by supporting Māori- and Pacific-led responses to climate change. 

Moving within currents long disturbed by colonial disruption, we recognise that the climate crisis across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa (the Pacific Ocean) is a direct legacy of the dismantling of whakapapa-based governance, land dispossession, and extractive marine systems. This work affirms that the reclamation of mātauranga (Indigenous knowledge), te reo (language), and tikanga (cultural law and practice) is not only a cultural responsibility but a vital form of climate action and intergenerational resilience. 

Navigating with the knowledge systems of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, woven through our shared whakapapa and sustained by Indigenous ways of being, doing, and knowing, this pou strengthens Māori and Pacific-led climate responses through four interconnected streams: 

Indigenous Research

Filling critical knowledge gaps and grounding action in tikanga

Knowledge Exchange

Connecting Māori and Pacific communities to learn from one another

Storytelling

Sharing Indigenous voices, solutions, and lived realities with the world

Policy Advocacy

Connecting Māori and Pacific communities to learn from one another

Ngā Pou Rāhui o Hinemoana supports whānau (families) and hapū (sub-tribes) to lead work that is grounded in tikanga and place, while empowering intergenerational relationships across Aotearoa and the wider Pacific. It upholds Te Tira Whakamātaki’s principle that Indigenous leadership means defining the problem, shaping the response, and leading with the wisdom of whakapapa.