Tiriti-dynamic leadership is a relational way of leading in a Tiriti-based Aotearoa New Zealand, grounded in te ao Māori. It treats Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a working model for partnership in all our work, with teams, boards, communities and partners. At its core is Te Pūtake: mauri, whanaungatanga, kaitiakitanga, mana motuhake and tūrangawaewae.
Where the term comes from
We didn’t invent “Tiriti-dynamic”. Te Hiringa Hauora used it for health promotion from 2019, and that work is the base ours grew from. In October 2025 we published Tiriti-dynamic social marketing in the Journal of Social Marketing, which set out Te Pūtake.
The journal’s editor at the time, Professor Ann-Marie Kennedy, said the significance of Tiriti-dynamic social marketing was “not just for New Zealand, but in fact for the world”, as we reported in NZ Marketing magazine, issue 85.
Why a marketing framework works for leaders
The paper was about campaigns. But the problem it described was about power. In conventional approaches, non-Māori organisations make the big decisions and communities get consulted, at best. That is a leadership problem before it is a marketing one.
Te Pūtake changes the question. Instead of “How do we influence this audience?” it asks “How do we fulfil our responsibilities as guardians?” Put that to a board or an executive team and it changes what gets discussed, who is in the room and who decides.
The five concepts
- Mauri (life force). The vitality of tāngata, places, and organisations. What protects it. What depletes it.
- Whanaungatanga (relationships). How we build and sustain genuine connections. Trust before transaction.
- Kaitiakitanga (guardianship). What we hold in trust for those who come next. The long view.
- Mana motuhake (self-determination). Tāngata and hapori lead their own mahi. We walk alongside, not in front.
- Tūrangawaewae (place-based belonging). Where we stand. What grounds us. The specificity of context.
How it differs from Te Tiriti training
Te Tiriti training usually covers history, articles, and obligations. Important groundwork. This is the next layer: how you lead once you understand the obligations. We assume you’ve done the foundational mahi.
How the knowledge is held
We use he awa whiria, the braided rivers approach created by the late Professor Angus Macfarlane, alongside Associate Professor Sonja Macfarlane. It braids Indigenous and Western knowledge. We apply it to tāngata whenua knowledge and tāngata Tiriti knowledge, which flow alongside each other as equals. Sometimes they meet. Sometimes they keep their own course. More on the kaupapa →
What it looks like in practice
It isn’t only about working with iwi and hapū. It’s about the way we work in a Tiriti-based Aotearoa New Zealand.
It’s knowing who the mana whenua are where you operate and who the communities are that you serve. It shapes how you show up, how you listen and how you engage, inside your team and with iwi, hapū, hapori, Crown agencies and partners.
If you want a starting point for your own team, the self-check takes about five minutes.