Whiria te Tāngata

Te Rōpū Whakahau leading Whiria te Tāngata

The National Library of New Zealand was proud to deliver the inaugural Whiria te Tāngata programme. It is a collaborative initiative that brings together library and information professionals, known as kākaho, from diverse backgrounds. They embark on an eight-month learning and development journey, underpinned by mātauranga Māori.

Whiria te Tāngata is now led by Te Rōpū Whakahau and supported by the National Library of New Zealand, thanks to funding from the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme.

Te Rōpū Whakahau

Whiria te Tāngata background

Whiria te Tāngata works to further the sustainability goals of the library sector in Aotearoa as part of the sustainability mahi commissioned by the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme (NZLPP). This initiative aims to build the capability and skills of the sector; communicate the value of the sector, including how it supports community recovery and resilience; and take an ‘action learning’ approach to:

• exploring a cross-sector partnership model that focuses beyond the sector

• addressing the enablers for communication and collaboration 

• implementing the data research and evidence strategy and workforce capability framework created from the work commissioned from NZLPP.

New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme

Origins of Whiria te Tāngata

The New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme (NZLPP) was established in budget 2020 as a time-limited delivery programme in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme supported librarians and library services to be retained in New Zealand libraries and assisted them to support community recovery.

A full programme reset was undertaken responding to the sectors biggest desire for ongoing sustainability of the library sector. With the remaining funds it was agreed NZLPP would provide an ‘incubation role’ for strategic/ sustainability mahi that will live beyond the life of the programme, that would ultimately need to be owned and implemented by the Sector.

Purpose of Whiria te Tāngata

Whiria te Tāngata — weaving the people together, to ensure the long-term sustainability of a libraries sector that is widely valued, used, enabled, and supported to deliver positive social and economic outcomes for people, whānau, communities, iwi, and Aotearoa.

Kākaho — Library sustainability champions

The kākaho – sustainability champions come from an intentionally diverse range of backgrounds and experiences within the library sector. These roles were created to be part of a dynamic cohort who are working to deliver on the sustainability initiatives produced by the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme (NZLPP).

Whiria te Tāngata is an 8-month learning and development opportunity for the kākaho to grow their networking, collective impact, and strategic leadership skills within a national project that is mātauranga Māori led. Kākaho work within their substantive roles, whilst working collaboratively together via a dedicated online learning management system, dedicating one day a week to the programme.

The project operates through a hybrid model of learning with both online learning and face-to-face noho marae spaced throughout the programme. With the support of their workplace, being a kākaho will include applying practical skills to highly relevant issues facing libraries and the library sector today.

Read blog posts written by the first kākaho cohort

Workstreams underpinned by mātauranga Māori

Whiria te Tāngata is split into four separate kaupapa that are all underpinned by mātauranga Māori that utilise four tukutuku panel designs to represent each of these kaupapa.

Waharua

Waharua according to some is a pattern also known as whenua.  It has symbolic connections with the land and alludes to the burial of the pito in the land after birth. This pattern represents the mātauranga Māori workstream and underpins all of the workstreams.

Poutama

Poutama represents the process of scaffolding knowledge and recognises that people build on prior knowledge and experience. This was particularly apt when applied to Workforce Capability to assist in the continued building and development of future librarians. 

This workstream focuses on implementing and piloting a sector workforce capability framework to build the infrastructure to support broadening and strengthening capability.

Purapura whetū

Purapura whetū represents the many stars in the sky, which in turn can have multiple significances. We chose this design to underpin the data, research, and evidence mahi due to the complexity and issues that are an integral part of this process. 

This workstream focuses on supporting the implementation of a sector data, research, and evidence strategy to lay the foundations for a strong data culture and data, research, and evidence base of the social and economic value libraries services deliver.

Data, research, and evidence strategy resources

Niho taniwha

Niho taniwha, means the ‘teeth of the taniwha’.  When taken literally, it seems apt for collective impact as determination and tenacity that will be needed to build a more joined-up sector for the future. 

The focus of this workstream is collaboration within the sector and establishing the foundation for a sector-wide collaborative model.

Kākaho

The sustainability champions give strength to our tukutuku panel and are the backbone to the project. As they move through the learning and development, they are giving life to the tūmatakahuki which binds everything together.

The tūmatakahuki is a strong double stitch that is on each side of a tukutuku used to bind everything together.

Whiria te Tāngata outcomes

The following outcomes for the project are:

• to grow the capacity and confidence within the wider sector to implement the sustainability initiatives

• introduce and implement long-term sustainability initiatives for the library sector that supports whānau, communities, iwi and Aotearoa.

• the project be Mātauranga Māori led and embedded

• building a compelling narrative on the value of libraries to communities and Aotearoa by laying down the foundations for collective impact and a sector-wide collaboration model

Whiria te Tāngata governance

The inaugral Whiria te Tāngata operated under an interim governance group to ensure the project stayed on track. It also:

• provided governance oversight and overall direction, to ensure that the project is tracking as expected.

• maintained oversight of key dependencies and Library Sector activities that may impact on the project.

• made decisions on matters that have been escalated by the Programme Director and/or Project Manager

• ensured that project-level risks and issues are identified, managed, and appropriately escalated.

• provided support through a mātauranga lens.

The governance board was a combination of leads within specific specialised fields

• Lewis Brown SRO — previous Chair NZLPP Director National Library

• Catherine Leonard — Head of Library and Learning Services, Auckland Council

• Cellia Joe-Olsen — Poutoko Kaupapa | Projects and Initiatives Lead, Department of Internal Affairs

• Horowaitai Roberts-Tuahine — Kaiarahi | Advisor, Department of Internal Affairs

Want more information?

Thanks to the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme, a final Whiria te Tāngata programme has been funded.

This final cohort is led by Te Rōpū Whakahau and supported by the National Library of New Zealand.

Head to Te Rōpū Whakahau to follow more of the Whiria te Tāngata journey