Jo Chaffer introduces an episode from Advance HE’s leadership podcast with special guest Meihana Durie, DVC Māori at Massey University / Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa, New Zealand.
This podcast series is for anyone practising leadership, in whatever role or job title you occupy, who wishes to reflect on and possibly extend how you do leadership and to what end.
Advance HE Global Associate Jo Chaffer speaks to six people to understand how their different backgrounds and pathways are shaping their leadership today and asks what people can learn about themselves and their leadership. Listen to the series.
This interview is as much about how the conversation unfolds as it is about what is said. Notice how the Māori ways Meihana embodies entering and throughout the discussion create a shift in tempo, depth and direction and the impacts and outcomes that emerge as a result. This is Indigenous leadership ways in action alongside its elegant, simple articulation through metaphors and real-world examples.
Slowing down time for what really matters
The way in which he enters the conversation reveals a very different approach to time. Time is not viewed as the master to which we all jump, but as something that is there to give us space to build good relationships, to slow down to do things properly and do what matters. Meihana brings to the fore Māori values and lore, their centrality in his work and across Massey University’s academic, professional and student communities.
We hear little about the man himself in terms of his story but come to know who he is and what matters through his presence, his narration and explanations of his people, their ancestors and cosmologies. These reveal strongly held principles around learning, responsibility, care, and of service that are fundamental to his leadership in the university. We go on to discuss some of the external pressures New Zealand higher education and Māori are facing and how the sharing, telling and retelling of ancient stories helps reveal solutions to these present day challenges.
Meihana invites us all to consider how Indigenous leadership is present in our universities, wherever we are in the world. He implores us to listen well to and amplify the distinctive contribution Indigenous scholarly communities can make, particularly with regard to our stewardship of the environment through this current crisis.
Themes emerging from the conversation
- It’s in our gift to slow down time in order to do things properly, to build better relationships.
- Learning is lifelong. Like the Milky Way, it is a long pathway that fills the skies of our lives.
- Leadership is in service of others – about creating transformational outcomes for Māori and all people.
- Universities are places for empowerment.
- University leadership is about ensuring universities are continually evolving – not relics stuck in a time and place valued for their past reputation.
- Listen to the past to understand and discern trajectories for the future.
- Universities can be and hold places for Wānanga, places that are culturally safe and empower people to share; places for the practices of deep listening (and withholding judgement) especially to perspectives that are different from our own.
- Indigenous people have been custodians of the lands and waterways from ancient times and have very specific practices for sustaining the environment – let’s heed these.
Questions for reflection
- Do you feel like a slave to time, see it as a resource or as something malleable and helpful? How might changing how we think about our relationship to time change how we are in our other relationships?
- How do you locate yourself when meeting others? How do you allow them to see you and know you? And vice versa?
- What core principles do you hold and how are you able to live them in your work?
- What is your leadership in service of? What outcomes do you seek?
- How are you amplifying Indigenous voices to support a more equitable, sustainable world?
Professor Meihana Durie
He uri nō ngā iwi o Ngāti Kauwhata, Rangitāne,
Ngāti Porou, Rongo Whakaata me Ngāi Tahu
Meihana speaks on a range of kaupapa that relate to Māori Futures and Māori Potential and was a panellist at Hui aa Motu, hosted by the Kīngitanga. Much of Meihana’s work centres around projects that harness Māori potential through multidimensional approaches that help to promote transformative outcomes for Māori.
Meihana has a background in Māori Educational Leadership, Māori Wellbeing, Te Reo Māori and Tikanga Māori and is Deputy Vice Chancellor Māori at Massey University. He carries several leadership roles for his iwi of Ngāti Kauwhata and Rangitāne and is a kaikōrero for his various marae and an iwi media spokesperson.
He is the Chair of the MANUKURA Board of Trustees, a Ngāti Tahuriwakanui Māori High-Performance Secondary School based in Palmerston North. Some of his other current roles and appointments include Pou Tikanga, Waitangi Tribunal Constitutional Inquiry; Pou Tikanga, Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Mana Tamariki; Chair, Aorangi Marae Trustees and Chair, Te Mata o Te Tau, Academy for Māori Research and Scholarship, Massey University.
Meihana is a past recipient of the Sir Peter Snell Doctoral Award in Public Health and Exercise Science and the HRC Hohua Tutengaehe Māori Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, and alumnus of Massey University, Te Wānanga o Raukawa and the Whakatupuranga Rua Mano Tribal Experiment.
