Te Tokotoru – A systems approach for investing in equity and wellbeing
In December last year, the government launched Te Aorerekura - the National Strategy and Action Plan to eliminate Family Violence and Sexual Violence. It sets out a new, collective path for government, communities, specialist sectors and tangata whenua to eliminate family harm in Aotearoa. Te Tokotoru is the first of six key shifts for change proposed in the action plan.
Te Tokotoru, the ‘unbreakable three’ has been developed with whānau, rangatahi and partners at The Lab, TSI (The Southern Initiative) & TWI (The Western Initiative).
Te Tokotoru represents the three interconnected dimensions of strengthening, healing and responding. Te Tokotoru emerged from work to identify the conditions that enable communities to be well. It is informed by the work of Māori and Pacific practitioners, researchers and providers around what matters and makes a difference to whānau.
Te Tokotoru – the unbreakable three
What we have learned through our work alongside whānau and partners:
Conventional approaches to wellbeing underpinned by Pākehā or Eurocentric models have not worked for families that are experiencing the most disparity and impacts of inequity. There is increasing recognition that 'business as usual’ approaches reliant on discrete programmes and services, will not result in changing the structural drivers of inequity including institutionalised racism and the ongoing impacts of colonisation. A meaningful change is needed, once that centres Te Ao Māori and other values-led and Indigenous world views and practices.
Te Tokotoru is informed by practice-based evidence that includes whānau lived experience, mātauranga, Indigenous and Western knowledge. It is grounded in a commitment to tangata whenua and Indigenous led perspectives of wellbeing, and addressing the imbalance embedded in conventional government approaches.
Whānau have the solutions:
Whānau have shown us that three dimensions of healing, strengthening and responding need to be activated at the same time to create the conditions for wellbeing. Whānau have shown us that these three dimensions can be intentionally reinforced in our places, spaces, policies, and environments – or not. Whānau have shown us that:
that what helps, doesn’t always have to be a service
that whānau often need to start with healing
that public spaces, services and institutions are not neutral
that local and central government need to look inward to our own values, processes and systems, and the role these play in compounding inequity or enhancing equity
These insights enable a different starting point for how we think about equity and wellbeing. A whānau-centred perspective encourages us to think beyond the limits of rigid services and programmes, and instead invites us to broaden our gaze to enhancing the existing ecology of wellbeing in the places we live, learn, work and play. Te Tokotoru recognises that our communities often already have solutions to be well within them. The opportunity for government here, is to focus on reconfiguring our resources, policy, power, and structures to create the enabling conditions for wellbeing and community-led change.
Supporting government to take a whānau-centred approach to wellbeing.
Te Tokotoru is helping government teams change the way they:
Put whānau perspectives and experience and the centre
Balance investment across healing and strengthening, as well as responding
Start from aspiration and strengths, rather than crisis and deficits
Re-balance towards tangata whenua and Indigenous-led practices
Embed and apply strengthening, healing, and responding across distinct levels (individual, community, environmental, structural and policy).
For an in-depth look at Te Tokotoru, see the innovation brief on the Auckland Co-Design website.