What is home? Is it a place, a feeling, or is it the people that you love? While having a home is fundamental to wellbeing, the definition of home is not always straightforward. With this in mind, Whakauae Research Services (WRS) set out to explore Māori understandings of home in a project led by Dr Tanya Allport (Te Ati Awa).
Tanya says their evidence-based approach to Māori perceptions of ‘home’ is valuable given the importance of housing as a kaupapa, and the lack of a clear definition of home. “Māori are a very diverse population; some are brought up in cities, some are rural. You can’t have assumptions about what people think of as a home just because they are Māori. There is an assumption that everyone wants to live in papakāinga, so we wanted to talk to people to find out if this assumption was correct,” she says.
The team talked to diverse whānau across five rohe, including those who were homeless, renters, homeowners and in social housing. They also talked to people working in housing provision, policy makers, designers, planners and local government.
They found that while basic needs are the same for everyone, people had different perceptions of home. “Everyone wanted a home that was safe, a home where they can look after their own space, where they can be autonomous within that space, and not have people telling them what to do. It didn’t matter whether people aspired to live in a two-bedroom apartment or in a papakāinga near the marae, they all expressed the same needs from a home. These are desires for kaitiakitanga, rangatiratanga, manaakitanga. Housing security was also huge,” says Tanya.
Those desires could be met in a range of settings. Some wanted to ‘go home’ to live rurally in papakāinga or near their marae. Others felt home was also in the cities and were making homes in a variety of ways and in diverse spaces, says Tanya.
“Some are doing a more contemporary version of papakāinga, where they are trying to live communally, but with people they choose, rather than people who they are related to. Rangatahi were creating elements within spaces to make themselves feel at home, and once they had this, that was home for them. Many people said spaces where kai can be shared with people outside their homewere elements that created home. The concept of a home was not necessarily a place of bricks and mortar.”
The research also showed people need to feel part of a community and to see their culture in their surrounding spaces. “However, those living in urban environments found it harder to see themselves reflected. People also talked about having two kainga - they had one home where they worked and one home where they grew up or had whanau relationships to,” says Tanya.
Researchers were impressed with the innovative ways in which people created homes for others, but were concerned by a lack of connection and information sharing among different entities. “There is no point reinventing the wheel if it is already being done,” says Tanya.
Off the back of their housing research project, WRS is hosting a symposium to highlight some of the amazing mahi that communities are leading. “A big approach of this research was not to focus on deficit narratives, but to share the positive things that are happening. Māori are just doing it for themselves and not waiting around for the Government to be involved, and we want to encourage people working in the housing area to start working collaboratively and build on what has been done.”
What: Re-Imagining Māori and Home
Where: AUT City Campus
When: Thursday, 17 July, 2025
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/re-imagining-maori-and-home-a-symposium-on-home-and-housing
Website: https://www.kia-puawai.whakauae.co.nz/maori-and-home