Kaitiakitanga me te whakamahi tika
Stewardship and Responsible Use
How Whakapapa Economics should be used, and what it should not claim to do.
Five commitments
The method is an applied framework
Whakapapa Economics is an evolving applied framework. It draws on Māori concepts, theory, scholarship and practice to support better economic and impact reasoning. It does not claim to originate the Māori concepts on which it relies.
Not a universal definition of Māori value
The framework is not a universal definition of Māori value. It does not replace iwi, hapū, whānau, mana whenua or community-defined understandings of value.
Māori concepts are not priced directly
The method does not price whakapapa, mana, mauri, wairua, tikanga or other Māori concepts as abstract objects. It values observable pathways that may arise when those concepts are upheld in practice.
Evidence and judgement matter
Wider value still needs discipline. Claims should be supported by clear pathways, bounded groups, observable signals, evidence, uncertainty and safeguards against double counting.
Responsible application requires context
Serious use of the method requires context-specific evidence, appropriate engagement, Māori authority where relevant, and careful interpretation.
What serious use should show
A serious application should make the following visible:
- the pathway being claimed and the group affected;
- the evidence supporting the pathway;
- the assumptions used to estimate scale or value;
- the counterfactual and contribution reasoning; and
- the checks used to avoid overlap and over-claiming.
Applied work
Whakapapa Economics is the open community-of-practice home for the method. Project-specific assessment and paid applied work are provided separately through Matatihi.
Te wātea
Licence and reuse
Whakapapa Economics is shared openly. The method, the method paper and site content authored by Dr Jay Whitehead / Whakapapa Economics are free to use, share and adapt for non-commercial purposes with attribution. They are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Invited Field Notes do not inherit that licence automatically. Contributors retain copyright, agree a non-exclusive publication right, and approve the reuse licence displayed on their note before publication. A Creative Commons licence applies to a guest contribution only when its author has explicitly agreed to it.
This keeps the thinking available to whānau, hapū, iwi, community organisations, researchers and the public without cost. Commercial and applied work — project-specific engagements, evaluations and value accounts — is undertaken through Matatihi.
The open licence supports learning and adaptation. It does not turn these public tools into an assurance process. Public impact or value claims still need project-specific evidence and appropriate review.
Te kaituhi
About the author
Whakapapa Economics is developed and stewarded by Dr Jay Whitehead (Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Ōraka Aparima), an economist and environmental scientist and Managing Director of Matatihi. He holds a PhD in Applied Economics from Lincoln University and was a Senior Research Fellow at the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, University of Canterbury (2021–2024).
His work over more than a decade sits at the intersection of social and environmental impact valuation, non-financial reporting, and kaupapa Māori approaches to relational, cultural, environmental and intergenerational value. He authored the Tauutuutu white paper for Our Land and Water on reciprocal exchange and value transmission, has contributed to the development of He Tauira — the External Reporting Board’s te ao Māori non-financial reporting framework — since its founding wānanga in 2022, and is the author of the most internationally cited peer-reviewed paper on materiality assessment for sustainability strategy.
The final reviewed method paper is available as a free, open-access download. A separate peer-reviewed article may be developed later with its own authorship and review process; it would not replace this public report. This page exists so readers can see where the thinking comes from and judge it accordingly.