HEATHER CAME & ASSOCIATES
PURSUING RACIAL JUSTICE.
Honourable
Kāwanatanga
Project
Heather Came & Associates is delighted to be part of the collaborative team awarded a Royal Society Te Apārangi - Marsden research grant for the project Honourable Kāwanatanga: Preparing for a Tiriti-based future. This multi-year programme brings together Māori and Tauiwi scholars to explore how governance can be reshaped to genuinely honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Drawing on Indigenous constitutional models like Matike Mai Aotearoa, the research uses policy reviews and collaborative wānanga to dismantle systemic barriers and design alternative decision-making frameworks that embed accountability, uphold mana motuhake, and achieve genuine power-sharing.
Meet the team
The research team: Heather Came, Clive Aspin, Grant Berghan, Mershen Pillay, Leah Waipuka Bain, Julio Pereira and Joy Ratima.
Clive Aspin (Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Whanaunga, Ngāti Tamaterā) is a senior kaupapa Māori health researcher with a long-term interest in culture, gender and sexuality. In 2023 he was awarded the Te Rangi Hiroa medal for contributions to societal transformation and change. Heather Came (Tangata Tiriti) has decades in antiracism work as a Tiriti worker with a professional background in critical public health prior to founding Heather Came & Associates. Mershen Pillay (Tauiwi) research focuses on decoloniality and he is based at Massey University. He advocates to address inequities in New Zealand and in post-1994, democratic South Africa.
Grant Berghan (Ngāpuhi, Ngātiwai and Te Rarawa) has extensive senior leadership experience working in Māori development. He is a kaumātua and co-facilitator of nationwide Māori leadership programmes. Leah Waipuka-Bain (Ngāti Kahungunu mē Rangitāne ki Wairarapa) brings expertise in policy development and antiracism. She has a background in education and health sectors.
Associate Professor Julio Pereira (Brazilian) has a background in statistics and in Bayesian approaches for modelling spatial data.
Joy Ratima completes the team as Project Manager bring her expertise in event planning, office and team management.
Professors Dominic O’Sullivan (Charles Sturt University) and Tim McCreanor (Massey University) and are both advisors on this project. Dominic (Te Rarawa, Irish) is a political scientist whose research focuses on Indigenous political theory, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the intersections of citizenship, governance, and decolonisation. Tim McCreanor (Pākehā) is a social psychologist and discourse analyst recognised for his pioneering work on racism, communication, and the social construction of Māori–Pākehā relations within media, policy, and public discourse.
Our team is supported by a critical research whānau—a collective of scholars, and leaders dedicated to social justice, decolonisation, and transformative change. Grounded in whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, and kōtahitanga, this community combines rigorous analysis with deep political commitment. Operating as a network of care and critique, they ensure our work remains ethical, relational, and collectively accountable. Our critical research whānau includes Dr Isla Emery-Whittington, Carl Chenery, Georgina Davis, Dr Lincoln Dam, Catherine Delahunty, Haami Harmer and Selena Shaw.
Tiriti Organisational Journeys Presentations
We held a one-day gathering online exploring the transformative potential of a Te Tiriti-led Aotearoa. Te Tiriti o Waitangi organisational journeys requires us to look beyond the constraints of current colonial frameworks and imagine how our society, economy, and environment might flourish when the promises made in 1840 are finally realised. The day was about moving from theory to practice, moving our "eyes wide open" toward "hands ready for action."
The day was grouped into sections with different chairs and the organisations in each section presented their Tiriti Organisational Journeys to attendees.
Environmental Health -chaired by Heather Came
Porirua Assembly of Climate
By Cally O'Neill
A Framework for Structural Tangata Tiriti Practice in Climate Action
By Jo Wrigley
Organisational Te Tiriti Commitments and Initiatives -chaired by Kyle Tan
Te Kaunihera ā-rohe o Whakatāne – Reflections on Tiriti Journey
by Maia Grant
Developing Te Tiriti compliant psychology profession
By Rose Black
Decolonising Speech-Language Therapy
By Carleen Heemi
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission
By Manawa Pomare & Lesa Kalapu
Hauora - chaired by Mershen Pillay
Non-Māori working to advance Māori health equity:.
By Francesca Storey et al
Reflections on TBI Health’s Te Tiriti journey
By Emma Webb & Blake Taylor
Community journey to Te Tiriti - chaired by Mershen Pillay
Korean Tiriti Education
By Rebekah Jaung, Janne Song, Lynne S Park
Tāhono Trust
By Atarau Hamilton & Ari
More community journeys to Te Tiriti -chaired by Heather Came
Kōtare - Story of our journey
By Catherine Delahunty
Toi Rāwhiti
By Jodi Porter & Anna Hayward
Parents of Vision Impaired NZ.
By Rebekah Graham
AUT
By Assoc Prof Joanna Fadyl & Prof Nicola Kayes
Stage two update
After a productive first stage the second stage of our study involves simultaneously writing up our movement elder interviews for publication and completing publications inspired by our 2025 Honourable kāwanatanga wānanga. Our focus for this stage of the project is a nationwide organisational survey to collect organisations Tiriti journeys. Recruitment for the survey concludes at the end of June. Data will then be analysed and we will be looking for co-authors to collaborate on publications.
We will then invite selected leaders from organisations that completed the survey to share in more detail the details of what they have learnt about Tiriti-based organisational change. This data will be analysed and much of the year we will be writing up our discoveries. We will continue to expand our fledgling Honourable kāwanatanga repository and work closely with our Critical Research Whānau.
Stage one overview
Inspired by Matike Mai Aotearoa, this study explores how the Crown and other organisations can uphold their Te Tiriti responsibilities to pursue equitable governance and outcomes. Stage one mapped out key themes from interviews with 20 Māori and Tauiwi movement leaders, which were further developed with 70 community leaders, practitioners and scholars at a collaborative Wellington wānanga. We are currently writing these findings up for a range of publications.
Alongside this core research, we are working on an edited book - Decolonisation and Kāwanatanga: Indigenous and Crown Relations in the Global South, edited by Clive Aspin, Mershen Pillay, and Leah Waipuka-Bain; a book based on the movement leader interviews and a Special Issue of Sites Journal on - Dimensions of Honourable Kãwanatanga. He have also hosted a one-day on-line gathering at which fourteen organisations shared their Tiriti organisational journeys.
Movement Elders Reading List
While interviewing twenty movement leaders about Honourable Kāwanatanga last year a range of key readings were mentioned. Here is an annotated list for those wanting to curl up with a book, paper or report that sheds some light on the dynamics of racial and/or Tiriti justice, privilege and decolonisation.
Wānanga report
Our honourable kãwanatanga wananga was held on October 28, 2025, at Te Herenga Waka marae, our team convened a diverse group of 70 participants—including scholars, activists, and community leaders—to explore the values and structures necessary for a Te Tiriti-based future in Aotearoa. Utilising caucused sessions for tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti, the event focused on shifting from colonial, transactional systems toward radical relationality grounded in indigenous rights, collective responsibility, and ecological interdependence. Key discussions emphasised that achieving honourable kāwanatanga requires constitutional transformation, the restoration of balance between rangatiratanga and governance, and a commitment to personal and intergenerational change that begins within our own houses. Despite facing a status quo described as dishonourable and dysfunctional, participants highlighted the power of small-scale, localised actions—or seeds—and the values of Matike Mai as pathways to regain Tino Rangatiratanga and foster a system of care for all communities.
Publications
These papers are directly and indirectly part of our Honourable Kāwanatanga study. Please contact us if you are interested in collaborating on academic publications.
Came, H, Barnes, A & Heta-Morris, T. (2026). Tiriti-led organisational change: A literature review, Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 22(1). p1-29 https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-id560 Full paper available here. Blog available here.
This comprehensive literature review analyses academic and grey literature published between 2000 and 2025, exploring how organisations can meaningfully embed Te Tiriti o Waitangi across strategy, governance, and service delivery. The authors argue that genuine organisational change requires deep structural transformation and shared power rather than superficial symbolic gestures. Becoming a Tiriti-dynamic workplace demands collective leadership, culturally safe anti-racist practice for Tauiwi, and the active affirmation of kaupapa Māori approaches, tino rangatiratanga, and mātauranga Māori.
Came, H., O’Sullivan, D. T., Berghan, G., & McCreanor, T. (2026). “Needs not race”: A discursive Tiriti analysis of the 2024 New Zealand cabinet circular on needs-based service provision. Ethnicities, 26(1), 124–140. Full paper available here. Blog available here.
In “Needs not race”, we analyse the 2024 Cabinet Circular, which sought to remove race as a criterion for public services. Applying Discursive Tiriti Analysis, the authors argued this policy reframes Te Tiriti as a racial issue, promoting assimilation disguised as equality. We contend that “one people” rhetoric masks systemic inequities and undermines mana motuhake. Ultimately, restoring Māori authority is deemed essential for decolonising public policy and achieving substantive equality in Aotearoa.
Came, H., Barnes, A., Heta-Morris, T., Woodard, W., & Adam, D. (2026). Reflections from Tiriti workers: Insights into Tiriti-led organisational change. Ethnicities, 0(0), 14687968261446346. Full paper available here. Blog available here.
Drawing on interviews with six senior Māori and Pākehā Tiriti workers, we explored the complexities of Tiriti-led organisational change across Aotearoa. We highlight that this work is an ongoing journey rather than a destination, requiring sustained commitment, power-sharing, and genuine relationships with Māori. Effective change demands holistic, educational approaches that actively disrupt institutional racism and monocultural practices. Ultimately, upholding Te Tiriti requires reflective leadership, collective responsibility, and dismantling colonial structures.