A South Island-based kaupapa is working to revive traditional Māori parenting knowledge and share ancestral approaches to raising tamariki with whānau across Aotearoa.
Tūpuna Parenting works alongside whānau and whānau support service staff to reconnect with mātauranga Māori and understand parenting practices that existed before colonisation.
The initiative was established in 2018 by Elizabeth Harte (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou) and her mother Helen Mountain Harte, a lead researcher in the field. Following Helen’s passing in 2019, Harte continued carrying the kaupapa forward, moving the programme online during the COVID-19 pandemic before piloting the Ngākau Aroha programme in 2021.
Harte says the kaupapa is centred on reminding whānau of the inherent mana and tapu held by tamariki.
“It’s all about the tapu and the mana of tamariki and that we know that they’re all born that way and reminding whānau of that again.”
The Ngākau Aroha programme provides professional development for kaimahi working in whānau support services, equipping them with mātauranga Māori-based tools and frameworks to support whānau.
Former student and now kaiako of Ngākau Aroha, Tania Matautia, says the programme has created meaningful changes for whānau she has worked with.
Beginning her journey as a kaiāwhina with Whānau Āwhina Plunket in 2021, Matautia says one experience with a young father highlighted the impact of reconnecting with traditional Māori parenting values.
“One great story that I experienced was working with a young father who had three children and he really was struggling with the way he was helping his children with their feelings, some of those bigger emotions and he was quite tough on them.
“He had a strong view that as a Māori father he was to be strong and to teach his children how to be tough. And when we introduced the idea of Tāne and what our fathers did as Tūpuna carrying their pēpi, being kind, showing them the world, helping them understand the world, it really helped him to shift his view on what it is to be a father and a Māori father.”
Reconnecting with traditional parenting practices
Tūpuna Parenting is grounded in the belief that traditional Māori parenting practices were based on gentleness, connection and nurturing.
Prior to colonisation, Māori communities viewed tamariki as holding mana and being supported collectively by whānau, with learning often centred around guidance rather than punishment.
Historical accounts from early European arrivals also documented the relationship between Māori parents and their children.
In The Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden 1765–1838, Reverend Samuel Marsden wrote:
“I saw no quarrelling while I was there. They are kind to their women and children. I never observed either with a mark of violence upon them, nor did I ever see a see a child struck,” said Marsden.
However, Māori children continue to experience disproportionate levels of harm today. Oranga Tamariki’s 2024/25 annual report recorded 3,205 tamariki Māori in care who experienced a finding of harm, representing 10% of tamariki Māori in care during that reporting period.
Harte believes reconnecting with Māori parenting knowledge can help shift the way whānau view parenting and support future generations.
“If someone was to ask what was Māori parenting like before the Europeans got here, we’d like people or anyone to say, it was really gentle. That knowing and that believing would be a significant shift for our people.”
For Kandace Smiler, a student of the Ngākau Aroha course, the kaupapa reinforces the mahi she already does supporting whānau Māori.
“I apply these learnings already. So, I found it good to have a very clear framework for something that I already do inherently.”
Expanding the kaupapa
Tūpuna Parenting currently offers two programmes: Ngākau Aroha, a professional development course for kaimahi working in whānau support services, and Tūpuna Parenting Foundations, which provides education and support directly to whānau.
The Tūpuna Parenting Foundations course is set to expand nationwide, bringing mātauranga Māori-based parenting knowledge directly to whānau across the motu.
Harte says the kaupapa supports not only the wellbeing of tamariki, but also the confidence and wellbeing of parents.
“These whānau do gain Tūpuna Parenting knowledge, they then have improved parenting confidence, again better mental wellbeing. There’s also a restoration of mana and better decision making that is reported.”
The South Island community investment organisation Rātā Foundation has supported Tūpuna Parenting since 2022, initially funding Canterbury, Nelson and Marlborough-based kaimahi to participate in the programme.
That support has since expanded to include the rollout of an eight-week whānau wānanga programme, bringing the kaupapa directly to whānau.
