Co-design and collaboration – how to build genuine partnerships with mana whenua
“When you go through these co-design projects, I'm yet to see one that fails. I'm yet to see one that hasn't delivered for the community.”
These were the words of water engineer Troy Brockbank, in a recent Water New Zealand Tāwara o te Wai podcast exploring the question many water sector professionals are grappling with - how we move beyond consultation and build genuine partnerships with mana whenua?
As water organisations navigate reform, there’s a risk that engagement with iwi becomes treated as a compliance exercise or a simple tick-box requirement.
Hosts Jon Reed and Emily Afoa are joined by Sarah Nolan, Water New Zealand's 2025 Young Stormwater Professional of the Year, whose article in the July/August Water Journal challenged the sector to think more critically about its approach to iwi engagement.
Sarah says that consultation with iwi and mana whenua can easily become more procedural than purposeful.
A genuine partnership and achieving better outcomes requires a shift towards co-design, shared accountability, and relationships built in at the beginning of a project.
Also joining the discussion is Troy Brockbank, who played a key role in developing Water New Zealand's Cultural Significance and Importance of Wai training module and its recent transition to an online format.
Together, Sarah and Troy discuss the practical steps water professionals can take to strengthen partnerships with mana whenua in their day-to-day work.
They explore barriers to collaboration, the opportunities presented by current water reforms, and how co-design with iwi can deliver better project outcomes.
29 Jul 2026
Climate change and water infrastructure - shifting from discussion to action
Water infrastructure has been identified as the single most significant climate risk in Aotearoa New Zealand, according to the latest Climate Change Commission National Climate Change Risk Assessment report.
In this edition of Tāwara o te Wai, Jon Reed and Hannah Edmond discuss the implications and the impact on the water sector with climate change adaptation specialist James Hughes.
They ask what decisions do we, as a sector, need to make around infrastructure, urban development, drought and flood risk.
28 May 2026
Reshaping how communities understand and prepare for flooding
For many New Zealanders, flooding has shifted from a distant risk to a lived reality.
In Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland the severe floods of 2023 helped spark a transformation around the understanding of flood risk.
In our latest podcast, hosts Jon Reed and Emily Afoa talk to Auckland Council flood risk leaders Nancy Baines and Nick Brown, about how communities now understand a lot more about flood risk. But how well prepared are they to cope with what’s now an inevitability for many – flooding and its aftermath?
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