Wakatū Incorporation were leading a new regional alliance of eight iwi, three councils, MBIE, business, NMIT and NRDA across Te Tauihu which required comprehensive engagement to form a mandate and develop a strategy for the region.

The initiative covered the whole of Te Tauihu from Mohua (Golden Bay) to Waikawa and everywhere in between. These regions are not only geographically vast but also all very unique and distinctive in their character and local traits and nuances. For comparison, the distance from Golden Bay to Picton is essentially from Wellington to Taupo.

The community was suffering from a high degree of “engagement fatigue” and were typically not participating in community engagement processes led by the stakeholders. We needed to activate grassroots conversations whilst also representing a wide array of stakeholder interests. Timings were tight, and we not only needed to reach people fast but also establish trust and build a strong platform from which to develop the strategy.

A unifying brand identity for the project that celebrated what connects us as a region – the mountain ranges that give us strength and shelter us – connecting communities across Te Tauihu. The brand identity was deliberately strong to standout but also versatile in that it could easily morph and change to reflect the local context. It was flexible enough that people could make their mark on it but strong enough that it galvinised people.

We created a suite of digital assets to form the hub of the project including a website, social media channels and an email database. This ensured things were transparent and accessible from the outset.

To clearly signal people were in different territory with this project, we cancelled the engagement meetings (disruptive) and replaced them with a combination of wānanga to do the deep dives and a series called Te Tauihu Talks which were essentially fireside chats in each local community. 

We live streamed these fireside chats and created content from each of the talks. The talks were all fully booked and extremely well attended. The content from them was shared with tens of thousands of people, enabling participation from even the furthest parts of the world for whānau who grew up here but lived away or maintained an interest in the region.

We created a platform for local voices and curated some disruptive guests to provide for a really strong dialogue that kept people engaged and interested. We struck a balance between platforming local voices and ensuring that the exercise was not insular but also broke out of the patterns of usual conversation here.

These talks were held in cafes, marae, town halls and theatres around the region. They were extremely successful and the content is still being used for resources to this day.

We also held a Youth Summit to capture the voices of rangatahi and allow them to set the direction for the rest of the work, with autonomy over the vision and narrative that was the foundation for the strategy.

Working with mana whenua, we landed on the identity for the strategy of “Tūpuna Pono – Being Good Ancestors” which has become a touchstone for the region.

As a result, we created a high degree of community buy in and participation in the strategy, which has ensured it remains a relevant kaupapa. 

The Strategy actually lives on primarily in the hearts and minds of local people who use it as a tool to influence decisions and outcomes.

The Strategy resources were picked up and utilised by partners including Councils adopting the language as part of their long term planning processes.

We created something that was resilient to political intervention and had a timeless relevancy, could be easily called on in conversation and have lasting impact.

Over 1,000 people directly participated in the creation of the strategy and tens of thousands more were reached through online channels.