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The indigenous Māori culture of New Zealand offers valuable insights for the development of ideas about the concept of asset. To highlight such insights, and to encourage a rethinking, this paper aims to explore the meaning of the closest Māori term to asset, taonga.

The critical review the authors conduct fuses Western literature‐based scholarship with an indigenous scholarly method that utilises oral information and the written literature of Māori scholars who have recognised traditional and scholarly credentials.

Taonga includes a sacred regard for the whole of nature and a belief that resources are gifts from the gods and ancestors for which current generations of Māori are responsible stewards. Taonga emphasises guardianship over ownership, collective and co‐operative rights over individualism, obligations towards future generations, and the need to manage resources sustainably.

The insights offered by Māori culture are beneficial in addressing a range of vexing environmental and social issues in ways that embrace a broader set of principles than those based on individual property rights and economic values.

When musicians collaborate, a conversation takes place. They may not necessarily come from the same background, or even speak the same language, but when they listen to each other play and musically engage with a mutual respect and openness, a true improvisational and conversational collaborative flow is created. No single person controls how the work develops: the direction of the flow of this musical output is collectively determined through all the participants’ contributions. This creative process sees the participants as sonic explorers navigating and traversing the contours of a cross-cultural landscape, allowing unique moments of sound to be the catalyst for the (re)creation of new fusions and possible future collaborations. Presented as a discussion between composer Dr Jeremy Mayall and renowned taonga puoro practitioner Horomona Horo, this chapter looks at how their collaborative creative practice-based research projects have developed and reveal the sorts of musical interactions that transpire when performer/composers from both Western contemporary and Indigenous music backgrounds are given the opportunity to spend time together and collaborate. In this chapter, Horo and Mayall reflect on the processes that have informed their collaborations since meeting in 2008, and how their ongoing practice has developed through a range of projects that serve as case studies and discussion points throughout. This chapter aims to explore the centrality of relationship building and the impact that this kind of cross-cultural engagement can have on the ways in which musicians from different backgrounds can thrive.

The invitation to write this chapter offers both Wiremu T. Puke (tangata whenua – person with Māori descent) and Sebastian J. Lowe (Pākehā – New Zealander with European ancestry) the opportunity to reflect on their friendship and research partnership, which they refer to as a takarangi, or an interlocking spiral, as seen in traditional Māori carving practice. This motif denotes the origin of all things: thoughts, ideas, concepts and genealogies, which are interconnected through a rich tapestry of history and tradition through a process of ongoing evolution, Te Ao Hurihuri (the ever-changing world) and Te Ao Mārama (the world of light).

They recognise the spaces that separate the two coils of the outward-radiating and interlocking spiral as their shared space. This space symbolises the unknowns as they move from them to tangible forms, through the written word, oral traditions, such as whakatauākī (sayings/proverbs), or through the many Māori visual arts such as whakairo (carving), or in film. Written as a dialogue between Puke, a tohunga whakairo (master-carver) with strong genealogical connections and tribal affiliations, and Lowe (anthropologist and musician) in recognition of their research partnership, this chapter discusses how their own cultural upbringings, personal and shared experiences, have contributed to the forming of their ever-expanding shared space. The ideas and themes they discuss have led to the formation of this chapter.

The authors report a study of heritage conservation linked to rural small-town regeneration in Aotearoa New Zealand. The purpose of this study is to answer the question: how, with limited local resources, do the residents and administrators of small settlements conserve historic heritage in the processes of rural regeneration?

This research is based on an analysis of physical heritage objects (buildings, artefacts and landscapes), associated regulatory arrangements, archival material, news media reporting, community group newsletters and photography. The authors use the river-side town of Rakaia and its environs in Te Waipounamu/the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand to answer the research question.

This research found that in a context of limited resources, volunteers, supported by small businesses and local and central government, can contribute positively to the conservation and interpretation of heritage as part of wider rural regeneration activities.

There is only limited writing on the links between heritage conservation, rural regeneration and the development of small towns. To advance the debate, the authors combine ideas about community-led heritage conservation and management with concepts drawn from rural studies, particularly the multifunctional rural space paradigm. This allows us to explore heritage conservation in a context of rapid rural change.

Exploring the links between resilience, sustainability and entrepreneurship from an indigenous perspective means exploring the historic and socio-cultural context out of which a community originates. From this perspective, informed insight into a community’s ability to adapt and to transform without major structural collapse when confronted with exogenous challenges or crises can be gained. This paper explores the interplay between resilience and entrepreneurship in a New Zealand indigenous setting.

The authors provide a theoretical and case study approach, exploring four intersecting leadership roles, their guiding value system and application at a micro kin family level through a tourism venture and at a macro kin tribal level through an urban land development venture.

The findings demonstrate the importance of historical precedent and socio-cultural values in shaping the leadership matrix that addresses exogenous challenges and crises in an entrepreneurship context.

The research is limited to New Zealand, but the findings have synergies with other indigenous entrepreneurship elsewhere. Further cross-cultural research in this field includes examining the interplay between rights and duties within indigenous communities as contributing facets to indigenous resilience and entrepreneurship.

This research is a contribution to theory and to indigenous community entrepreneurship in demonstrating what values and behaviours are assistive in confronting shocks, crises and challenges. Its originality is in the multi-disciplinary approach, combining economic and social anthropological, indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives. The originality of this paper also includes an analysis of contexts that appear to fall outside contemporary entrepreneurship, but are in fact directly linked.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how, why and to what effect pounamu (New Zealand greenstone) came to be owned and managed by Ngai Tahu as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement.

The value of pounamu to the Maori iwi Ngai Tahu, and the strategic importance and legislative mechanism of its vesting in Ngai Tahu are described. The current legal arrangements for pounamu are compared with those for other minerals and natural resources affected by Treaty of Waitangi settlements. The legally controversial issues of mandate, entitlement and enforcement that have arisen since the vesting are traversed.

The return of pounamu was critical in settling Ngai Tahu's Treaty claims. Other natural resources have also been subject to Treaty claims, and some have been restored in whole or in part to Maori control. Pounamu is now owned and controlled by Ngai Tahu. Customary uses of pounamu are allowed, as potentially is mining that is supported by research. Current research aims to determine extraction rates for sustainable use, based on a definition of the resource as pounamu that is available for surface discovery and collection. The process of vesting pounamu in the legal entity established to represent Ngai Tahu was controversial, and complex disputes about customary rights and pounamu source(s) have dominated criminal proceedings undertaken to protect Ngai Tahu interests in pounamu.

The story of pounamu provides an interesting example of a developing feature of resource management law and practice in New Zealand: resources that are owned and/or managed under a set of legal arrangements designed within the terms of settlement for a claim under the Treaty of Waitangi.

In the twenty-first century, data are the world’s most valuable resource. Technological capacities for the collection, storage, analysis and sharing of data are evolving rapidly, and as a result, so too are the possibilities for improving the day-to-day lives of people. However, data use can also result in exploitation and harm; nowhere is this more evident than for Indigenous peoples. Unfortunately, the rapid expansion of technology has not been matched by a sufficiently robust discussion of ethics nor the development of governance frameworks. Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDS) has emerged as a key consideration for this cause. Beginning with the presumption of Indigenous rights to tribal/nation sovereignty, IDS weaves together Indigenous research ethics, cultural and intellectual property rights and Indigenous governance discourse, with the view to offer solutions to the challenges being presented in an open data environment. This chapter will expand on this existing literature base and consider Māori data sovereignty in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand. More specifically, it provides the basis for a discussion around how kawa and tikanga drawn from Te Ao Māori might inform approaches to data ethics and data governance.

This paper aims to explore how Maori entrepreneurs in Aotearoa New Zealand negotiate cultural and commercial imperatives in their entrepreneurial practice. Culture is integral to Indigenous entrepreneurship, an example being tikanga Maori (Maori cultural values) and Maori entrepreneurship. This study discusses the tensions and synergies inherent in the negotiation of seemingly conflicting imperatives both theoretically and practically.

This study reports on a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews involving ten Maori enterprises of the Ngati Porou tribe on the east coast of Aotearoa New Zealand.

This study finds that depending on their contextual and cultural orientation, Maori entrepreneurs use tikanga to help negotiate cultural and commercial imperatives. The contingency of entrepreneurial situations and the heterogeneity of Maori perspectives on whether (and in what way) tikanga influences entrepreneurial practice appear influential. The authors propose a typology of Maori entrepreneurs’ approaches to explain the negotiation of cultural and commercial imperatives comprising the “culturally engaged Maori entrepreneur”; the “culturally responsive Maori entrepreneur”; and the “culturally ambivalent Maori entrepreneur.”

This study proposes a typology to analyse entrepreneurial practices of Indigenous entrepreneurs’ negotiation of cultural and commercial imperatives.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the process of economic development within a Maori context in order to identify successful processes for economic development that can be utilised by Maori for future economic progress. This study seeks insights into how to set up an appropriate framework to achieve suitable outcomes for these peoples, taking into account their world view.

The research study followed the tiaki or “mentor” model, where authoritative Maori individuals facilitate the research process. To ensure that the individuals interviewed were appropriate spokespeople, and that a variety of views on the topic of Maori economic development was solicited, judgment sampling was utilised to identify a list of potential interviewees.

Maori economic development requires that appropriate structures be put in place and that these structures must involve identifying the Maori community and meeting community aspirations. Achieving sovereignty and economic independence are goals of Maori economic development. Maori also seek acknowledgment of their authority in managing natural resources within the boundaries of historical tribal land. For Maori, it is important to view economic development as a vehicle for achieving social outcomes and reducing disparities.

This study uncovers underlying issues that need to be addressed when developing social‐ and economic‐development structures for an indigenous group.

This chapter describes a participatory case study undertaken at a museum in New Zealand, involving a varied range of museum stakeholders. The research investigated aspects of museum performance assessment in the context of public accountability from the perspectives of different communities of interest, including Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. The complex research design involved identifying key stakeholders, and then conducting focus groups with a diversity of stakeholder types. Through a brainstorming process, these groups co-created texts which formed the raw data for the study. The stakeholder-generated texts were interpreted at various stages to produce ‘Possible Performance Statements’ which reflected the understandings and concerns of the various stakeholders in relation to the case museum's performance. Adopting the concept mapping approach developed by Trochim, the focus group participants then sorted the statements into conceptual constructs which made sense to them, and also rated the statements according to their relative importance as criteria for assessing their museum's performance. Proprietary software that is used to analyse the sorting and rating data produced concept maps and pattern matches which facilitated interpretation of the participants’ perspectives. The visual representations of the quantitative analyses enabled qualitative consideration leading to the development of a framework for museum performance assessment which would be more holistic and locally relevant and which would address stakeholder concerns.

The application of this intricate hybrid research design provided lessons which suggested other ways to gain richer data and deeper insights from the concept mapping approach, especially in a cross-cultural context. Participatory approaches which allow collective, as opposed to individual, interpretation of the co-created texts may be more suitable in certain cultural contexts, in this instance among Maori participants. The approach adopted was resource-intensive, requiring tight organisation and flexibility, greatly assisted by piloting the processes and using a professional editor to prepare the texts for interpretation by the participants. To maximise the insights from the focus groups, audio-recording of the research participants’ discussions as they generated their texts relating to museum performance assessment should be considered, as well as involving participants in the interpretation of the concept maps.