Establishing a Māori Advisory Panel

ELI is seeking to establish a Māori Advisory Panel (Panel) to support and challenge ELI staff in their kaupapa throughout their various work streams. ELI recognises that tangata whenua exercise kaitiakitanga over natural resources within their rohe and are committed to work in partnership with iwi and hapū to achieve a healthier environment. Panel members would be contracted to ELI with an expected workload of approximately 4-5 hours per month.

Because ELI is a new organisation, there is a window of opportunity to form a cohesive Panel that improves ELI’s internal processes and knowledge bases in order to enable meaningful engagement with Māori.

Importantly, ELI is not tasking the Panel with the role of facilitating the organisation’s engagement with hapū, iwi and other Māori groups. Instead, the Panel will support ELI staff in building their capacity for more Treaty-compliant taiao management in their everyday work. The Panel is put in place to ensure that ELI staff can build the appropriate knowledge bases to commit to, and engage with Māori interests. In-house resources that help guide decision-making in these matters are currently insufficient in ensuring our commitment.

The document below describes the role in greater detail, including why ELI needs the Panel, and what The role entails.

If this role is of interest, please contact ELI with any pātai you might have, including any thoughts on the structure of the Panel.

Tiakina te mauri o te taiao.

CONTACT:

Reto Blattner de – Vries (Legal Researcher): reto.blattner@eli.org.nz

Mike Britton (CEO): mike.britton@eli.org.nz