Aotearoa 2040: an invitation for a dinner conversation

Close your eyes. Imagine. We are 23 years into the future. The children who are born today may be entering university or their first jobs. I’ll be 55, how old will you be? And what will Aotearoa New Zealand be like? What will New Zealand be like in 2040, 200 years after we first signed the Treaty of Waitangi? What picture do you see? What are we collectively working and walking towards? What is the work that needs to be done to get us there?

The Treaty.

As I was growing up I never really paid any attention to the Treaty — I knew of it — but I didn’t really KNOW of it. I didn’t know what it might mean or what it might represent or even where it came from.

I’m a first generation Pākehā New Zealander. I’ve been back in New Zealand for the last six years (having lived overseas for three years) and it’s been during this time that I have been exploring my connection to Aotearoa and thus to the Treaty. I’ve been asking: What relationship might I have to a document signed by others 177 years ago? A lot, I have found.

Three years ago I went to a Treaty workshop. There I first discovered the key principles of the Treaty, and also gained a better understanding of how they can be perceived and understood so differently in the two languages that they were signed in. Some concepts are nearly impossible to transpose. Anyone who speaks German knows that Gemütlichkeit just cannot be translated into English... So what might rangatiratanga actually mean? I can therefore only begin to comprehend that sovereignty might actually be impossible to translate…

I’ve realised how important it is to understand both the details (and thus the difference between the two translated texts), but also to explore an understanding of the whole and the founding intention of the document. What does this document enable, and what does it hinder? These questions lead me to think more about the role of a Constitution along side the Treaty.

The constitution.

I had the privilege of hosting Sir Geoffrey Palmer at the Open Source // Open Society conference in August 2016. He gave this marvellous keynote, which really opened up my eyes to the power of a conversation about a new Constitution, and why in fact we might even need one. Before I met Sir Geoffrey I’d thought the Constitution was an old bit of paper that was only relevant to lawyers. I guess I had put it in the same basket as the Treaty — something that people talked about but was not relevant to me. But his passion and dedication is infectious and the more I’ve thought about it I agree with his premise: If you don’t know the rules of the game, how can the game be open and accessible for all?

Governance+Me.

So this pondering about the relevance of the Treaty to me and the role of a new Constitution for Aotearoa lead me to think that we need more awareness on both a cultural societal level (eg in our education and business systems and structures), but also an individual, personal, level.

It has taken me more than 30 years to even start to build an awareness of these two document — so I now need to explore how I can actually live them and practice them in my life and work. If I am to help build and create organisations in New Zealand then I must try to build them in a way that honours, at least for me, some key values as I read them in the potential of both of these documents. These are the three I have been carrying:

Kaitiakitanga (guardianship)

• How might we protect and care for each other and our environment in our work? What practices might we develop that mean that our working life leaves less of an impact each and every day?
• How might we honour the spirit and the sacred in our daily working lives?
• How might we create regenerative organisations, and not just sustainable ones?

Whanaungatanga (building reciprocal relationships, community)

• How might every person in society feel like they are truly participating in society through their work?
• How might I ensure that when an organisation changes shape all voices are heard at the table?
• How might I actively practice collaboration?
• How might I get to know my colleagues beyond their job titles?

Manākitanga (generosity, holistic hospitality)

• How might an organisation be built with generosity at it’s core while also being competitive in a commercial environment?
• How might every person in an organisation feel in partnership with each other?
• How might all organisations recognise each other’s strengths, and weaknesses, and build an ecosystem together?

From practicing in organisations to manifesting in society.

I dream of a world where these values are not limited to organisations, but where these values are manifested in society, in my New Zealand. Where I, a New Zealand citizen, can feel and experience these in everything I do and with everyone I meet. It is a dream, because right now I just don’t see it. I don’t see these words, or concepts being practiced in our policies or in our societal structures or in our public life. But what if we had 23 years to build up our muscles of guardianship, community and generosity? What would our governing agreements look like?

Kai & Kōrero: The People’s Agenda for Aotearoa

Throughout June and July 2017 I am part of a team helping to organise a “prototype” of the conversation I hope we can host as nation in 23 years.

Kai & Kōrero: The People’s Agenda for Aotearoa — is an invitation to join each other at the dinner table.

To start the conversation now in our living rooms, to learn how to see each other, so that in 23 years time we might have the skills, connection and opportunity to re-meet each other here, in this land of Aotearoa New Zealand.

You are invited.

Will you join me? Click here for a full invite :-)

Thanks to Joshua Vial and the EHF for this initial conversation which sparked some of this thinking. Thanks to the work of Moana Jackson, Geoffrey Palmer and many others who are also having this conversation in the context of a new constitution. Thanks to the ActionStation community and membership for your continued work towards a fairer and more equitable society. Thanks to my dad, Bob Zuur, for the photos.