Kotahitanga at The National Māori Housing Conference
CEWH Kaihautū Dr. Kathie Irwin (Ngāti Porou, Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu) has shared her reflections in the following blog, from the Te Matapihi 2025 National Māori Housing Conference, held in Waitangi from October 20–22, 2025. Project Director Victoria Crockford and Collective Action Lead Amanda Kelly were privileged to attend alongside Kathie.
Left to right: Kathie Irwin, Victoria Crockford and Amanda Kelly
Hosted by Ngāpuhi in partnership with Te Matapihi, the conference brought together iwi, government, and community stakeholders to address housing challenges and drive solutions.
“We had the full experience of Ngāpuhi manaakitanga, and a range of fires were lit by people treating ‘collaboration’ as an action word,” Victoria said.
“The National Māori Housing Conference was a wonderful opportunity to learn, reflect, and connect with colleagues, old and new, from across the housing and homelessness sector. What a thought-provoking week,” Amanda added.
The CEWH team was deeply honoured and inspired by our Kaihautū Kathie Irwin, in her keynote speech. Kathie spoke powerfully to the promise of Aotearoatanga and the compound impact that must be addressed to end women’s homelessness.
We acknowledge the speakers for their inspiring kōrero, thought leadership, and unwavering commitment to housing solutions that prioritise whānau well-being.
“The call for kotahitanga in the transfer of energy and kaupapa from Ngāti Whakaue to Ngāpuhi was a deeply meaningful reminder of the shared aspirations of all attendees to see everyone in a safe and secure place to call home,” said Victoria.
Read Kathie’s insightful blog below on her reflections from the conference.
Reflections on Te Matapihi 2025 National Māori Housing Conference
By Dr. Kathie Irwin (Ngāti Porou, Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu)
He mihi aroha ki a Ngāpuhi me Te Matapihi mō te manaakitanga ki ngā manuhiri o Te 2025 National Māori Housing Conference. He taonga te aroha!
This years conference powhiri took place in Waitangi at Te Tii Marae. Waitangi is the historic location of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840, a foundational milestone in this country’s journey from Orokohanga to Aotearoatanga. Te Tii Marae is where politicians, visiting dignatories and the many visitors to Waitangi celebrations each year are welcomed.
The powhiri was opened by Bishop Kitohi Pikaahu, a Trustee of the Selwyn Foundation, one of the CEWH funders. In the opening speeches references were made to a broad range of topics including homelessness, and the housing needs of wahine Māori, rangatahi and older people. One of the waiata sung in the powhiri was “Ko ngā waka”, the anthem waiata composed for the Hikoi in 1975, the land march that Dame Whina Cooper led from Te Hapara to the Beehive. The waiata connected the conference with the broader Māori Renaissance that framed it – the fifty years of social and cultural activism (1975 – 2025) that has seen Te Ao Māori create modern expressions of rangatiratanga and Mana Motuhake in all speheres of life, including housing.
Conference participants were treated to a group of quality international indigenous and iwi and sector based national speakers. The international speakers addressed a number of themes which parallel the experiences of Māori. The experiences of colonisation shared by Aboriginal, Hawaiian, Canadian and Māori speakers were outlined and solutions to them explored. Stories of systemic attacks on identity, traditional language, culture and ways of living, were set against the background of land theft, resource extraction and economic impoverishment. The back story of homelessness and housing deprivation was explored through the historical and structural factors that created them.
I was invited to deliver a keynote address which was entitled “Aotearoatanga: Compound Interest, Compound Impact”. The presentation drew on The Papatūānuku Paradigm, the CEWH gender analysis toolkit, from a Te Ao Māori lens, to examine the topic. It explored the concept of compound interest, asking how some groups accrued surplus economic resources to invest and to benefit from, across generations. That scenario was contrasted with those who have the opposite experience of experiencing the compound impact of structural violence creating inequity and impoverishment.
A powerful theme of the conference was the strength of the Māori Cultural Infrastructure as the location, and source, of Māori innovation and creativity in the housing sector. Most speakers referred to exciting examples of whānau, hapū and iwi strategic thinking and planning informed by kaupapa Māori and mātauranga Māori. Papakainga were cited as major initiatives nationwide where whānau are unlocking the barriers to developing communally owned land for housing and well-being. Tikanga Māori, like whanaungatanga, were the subject of wānanga in a range of workshops, enabling people to explore in detail the what, the how and the when of housing solutions.
There were clear understandings that Māori know the ‘why’ of addressing homelessness and housing precarity and are moving quickly to explore their agency at the cutting edge of solutions development.
The conference created a strong Māori forum for people to be able to talk openly and frankly about creating the transformational change so needed. Too often conferences end up constraining kaupapa Māori analysis because people who are not educated about the issues need to be educated about them before real dialogue can take place. Not here, this was a meeting place of like minds and hearts, determined social consciences committed to swift action. It was such a wonderful wānanga, deep and meaningful.
A diverse range of people attended the conference. They were presented with a range of ideas which showcased Maori solutions that are scaleable beyond Te Ao Māori. Throughout the Māori Renaissance, Māori people have been advocating that “what’s good for Māori is good for everyone”. This scalability idea is a feature of The Papatūānuku Paradigm. The graphic below is taken from the tool.
The conference closed with a handover ceremony of the mauri from the iwi of Te Nota to the iwi from Te Tairawhiti who will host the next National Māori Housing Conference.
As this blog was being finalised, the first of a planned 150 new homes of the Turanga Tangata Rite papakainga was delivered. As the whare arrived on the truck it was welcomed with karanga and karakia, taonga tuku iho offered to acknowledge the dawning of a new day for a whānau, hapū, iwi and their wider hāpori.
Housing security, a return home to their ukaipō. A possibility needed by so many.
