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Syncretism will never be a word used at the dinner tables of whānau (family) or at the marae (Māori communal gathering places) for it is ingrained in a specifically theological world. However, the concept behind the word is something with which Māori are very familiar because we do it automatically. We walk in Māori and Pākehā (New Zealanders of predominantly European ancestry) worlds and our spirituality comes with us. We navigate, negotiate and traverse the syncretistic terrain every day.

Far from being passive and/or static victims of climate change, indigenous peoples are hybridizing knowledge systems, and challenging and negotiating new environmental and social realities to develop their own adaptation options within their own registers of what is place and culture appropriate. Our paper seeks to demonstrate how we, as guests on Māori land, were able to develop a partnership with a Māori community facing difficult adaptation decisions regarding climate change hazards through the pragmatic navigation of multi-disciplinary research and practice. In particular, we co-developed and tested the potential of a serious game (Marae-opoly) approach as a platform which assembles cross-cultural climate change knowledge to learn, safely experiment and inform adaptation decisions. Marae-opoly was developed bespoke to its intended context—to support the creation of mutually agreeable dynamic adaptive policy pathways (DAPP) for localized flood adaptation. Game material was generated by drawing together detailed local knowledge (i.e. hydrology, climate data, mātauranga hapū) and situated adaptation options and accurate contextual data to create a credible gaming experience for the hapū of Tangoio Marae. We argue that the in-situ co-development process used to co-create Marae-opoly was fundamental in its success in achieving outcomes for the hapū. It also provided important lessons for the research team regarding how to enter as respectful guests and work together effectively to provide a resource to support our partners' adaptation decisions. The paper discusses the steps taken to establish research partnerships and develop the serious game and its subsequent playing, albeit we do not evaluate our indigenous research partners' adaptation decisions. Our contribution with this paper is in sharing an approach which cultivated the ground to enter as respectful guests and work together effectively to provide a resource for our partners' adaptation decisions.

Empty spaces, open spaces, prefabricated buildings, disused school halls, patches of grass and suchlike have long been the teaching spaces of subjects such as Drama and Physical Education; likewise, ECE and Marae-based learning are other ‘marginalised’ domains of education in Aotearoa New Zealand today. Subjugated in the educational landscape, these areas have often had to make do, and innovate pedagogy out of necessity. Arguably, these domains have been navigating the issues related to Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) for many years. In this article, these domains provide the four focus areas of education, for thinking about the relationship between space and pedagogy. As dynamic and interactive forms of education, ECE, PE, Drama and Marae-based learning require practitioners who cultivate students’ relational and collaborative skills, essential to twenty first-century competencies. This article highlights: the nature of the physical spaces allocated to teachers in these four domains; how the spaces contribute to pedagogy; and what lessons are on offer for ILE practice. Three elements serve as a framework (the ‘3-R’ framework) to guide our discussions of how teachers working in these four foci navigate physical spaces: Using this framework, we consider each of the four foci in turn, to identify key considerations for ILE practitioners, and offer provocations for re-conceptualising pedagogy in relation to space.

INTRODUCTION Gout remains a health equity issue; Māori and Pacific peoples are disproportionately afflicted, with increased burden and loss of quality of life, yet are less likely to receive appropriate management, which mainly occurs in primary care. AIM This study aims to understand the perspectives of the mainly Māori and Pacific clinicians and staff at an urban marae practice about barriers and challenges to delivering effective care to a Māori and Pacific community with high burden of gout. METHODS Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 staff members delivering health care to a mostly Indigenous community. Interviews sought to ascertain staff views of enablers and barriers to optimal gout management and analyse them thematically. RESULTS Three themes were identified: community disadvantage; demands unique to Indigenous providers; and challenges and opportunities for optimising gout management. High prevalence and heavy impact of gout on wellbeing in the community was intertwined with socioeconomic disadvantage, precariousness of employment and entrenched inaccurate (yet pliable) patient views on gout, to the detriment of focused, effective care. Structural and funding demands on providers inhibited staff focus on the clear community need. Providers saw the culturally safe and competent approach necessary for improvement as requiring community empowerment with appropriate clinical tools and adequate resourcing. DISCUSSION Despite provider intent to deliver culturally appropriate and safe care and equitable health outcomes for patients suffering from gout, general practice initiatives without aligned resourcing or incentives are inhibited when inequity is pervasive. Simply asking Māori providers to do more for the same amount of resource may not be effective.

This article discusses the work of Maori theatre company Te Rakau Hua o Te Wao Tapu, and its approach to decolonising theatre in Aotearoa/New Zealand through its Theatre Marae programme. First, I locate the establishment of Te Rakau and Theatre Marae as a response to Maori being excluded from mainstream theatre, then present a summary of Te Rakau's contribution to the development of contemporary Maori theatre, theatre-in-education and applied community theatre over the past thirty years. Finally, I describe the core processes of Te Rakau's Theatre Marae programme as an example of embedding Indigenous customs and philosophy in the ensemble as a decolonising strategy in actor training.

This paper will discuss Taurua’s whare: a whare built to memorialise Taurua Nātana, his mokopuna, and others and to shelter manuhiri engaged in the pōhiri process at Waiōhau marae. Taurua’s whare is part of the Waiōhau marae complex. The complex includes the wharenui, Tama-ki-Hikurangi—a whare built for the nineteenth-century prophet, Te Kooti (Rangiwai, 2021); a wharemate; a shelter for the paepae; a wharekai named after Te Kooti’s prophecy, Te Umutaoroa;[1] a memorial flagpole, along with three other granite memorials; and a large ablution block. The focal point of the marae complex is the wharenui.

In this paper the author suggests that, when standing at the waharoa (gate) waiting for the karanga which calls us on to the marae, many of us, and particularly those whose ancestral histories originate in countries other than Aotearoa New Zealand, feel the apprehensive anticipation, if not disturbing terror, that comes with stepping into a cultural context so imbued with the painful colonial histories of this country. The paper explores how this history impacts upon us in cross-cultural encounters in Aotearoa New Zealand, and in particular in encounters between Māori and non-Māori, and the challenges and opportunities such encounters offer for the psychotherapeutic clinical encounter.

The Taputapuatea marae of Ra’iatea is an emblematic landmark known throughout the world and sacred place for the Ma’ohi of Eastern Polynesia and the centre of a vast political-religious-cultural network in the Polynesian triangle. The erected stones constituting the ahu have been described as “limestone slabs” without precision by previous authors. These are in fact microatolls: corals (Porites) living in very shallow water and developing laterally, with a growth in height being limited by the lowest tide at the time of growth. A total of 38 samples were U/Th dated, of which 19 microatolls result in ages between 3 and 5 millennia. These are fossil microatolls that existed at a Holocene sea level of 0.80 m higher than today, when the Polynesians had not yet arrived. Other samples (molluscs, coral filling blocks) date back to the construction of the marae during the 17th-18th centuries. We hypothesize that the erected microatolls of the ahu were collected by Polynesians at the site and that others are still underground.

This article explores a synergy of inquiry-based learning and a cultural pedagogy within a Māori environment, the marae (communal meeting place) while using Academic Co-Creative Inquiry (ACCI), an innovative approach to teaching and learning which enables teachers and students to cocreate the content and the process of the course through personalized inquiries. Three areas form the focus of this article: an exploration of cultural pedagogy within a marae space, an ACCI process, and the culturally responsive Māori pedagogy of ako (teaching and learning). These three areas created a context for transformative learning. Authors reflect on how three academic women, two Māori and one Pākehā (person of European descent) each explored how the physical space of Ngākau Māhaki (name of the carved meeting house, meaning respectful heart) at Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae (name of the marae complex) contributed to transformative teaching and learning processes.