Staff at BestStart Willowpark Rd early childhood centre have now completed the Te Ara Whakamana Self-Directed Online Training in Early Childhood course, and are experiencing outstanding outcomes. The photos below show tamariki choosing to freely engage with Atua, pūrākau, waiata, art and the activities that surround them. Nannies and whānau feel that their identity and culture are truly valued, ahakoa ko wai, nō hea/ no matter where they are from. We offer our congratulations to the brilliant staff and Tumuaki for creating such an environment.
Susan and Nigel are excited to be presenting Te Ara Whakamana at this year’s World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference in Education held on 16-20 November 2025 at the Aotea Centre, Auckland.
We hope to see you there – please come and make yourselves known to us so we can connect.
We’re proud to share that Susan Ngawati Osborne and Nigel Marshall, co-founders of Te Ara Whakamana: Mana Enhancement Model, will be presenting at the upcoming NATINA Conference 2025.
Ako Solutionz tumuaki Susan Ngawati Osborne and Te Ara Wakamana director Nigel Marshall.
Pūrākau, the rich stories of Māori origins, are a key tool in fostering positive communication and relationships within Te Ara Whakamana: Mana Enhancement, a tool designed by Ako Solutionz. Schools across the motu have adapted this framework, demonstrating the power of meaningful interactions and storytelling.
Masterton Primary School is using innovative frameworks to foster positive communication, relationships, and a strong sense of identity among its ākonga with a ‘mana wheel’ tool.
Central to this shift is Te Ara Whakamana: Mana Enhancement, rooted in Māori cultural principles, which helps schools nurture and enhance the mana (core value) of ākonga and kaimahi.
Tumuaki Gene Bartlett says Te Ara Whakamana has been crucial for advancing the school’s social and emotional literacy.
“We’ve been a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) school for many years, but it lacks the cultural responsiveness we need. Te Ara Whakamana will be PB4L for our school.”
By integrating pūrākau, ākonga and kaimahi connect with and embrace the different sides of kaitiaki (guardians) to develop mutual understanding and meaningful interactions.
Deputy principal Jo Lennox says, “The mana wheel shows the duality of kaitiaki. They have their positive and negative sides, and we reward students for showing the positive traits. Gene developed the taiaha in the centre of the mana wheel to help students express their feelings.”
Horses Helping Humans Taranaki, Hōiho Hāpai Hapori is a licensee of the Horses Helping Humans programme developed by Sue Spence in 2006.
Lead facilitator Laura Menzies says the programme uses a trauma-informed approach to teach body awareness by pairing a young person with a facilitator and a horse.
“By interacting with the horse, young people learn how to adjust their body language and breathing to regulate their emotions, improving their assertive communication skills and self-confidence.”
The flow of the programme intentionally aligns with a pōwhiri, and the programme itself has an optional additional component called Te Ara Whakamana which is “a circular framework that uses the Māori creation story, colour, imagery, narrative and cultural metaphors”.
“We then incorporate the Atua (gods) from the Te Ara Whakamana model into the programme. For example, we channel feeling like Rongo-mā-Tāne (the protector of crops and also the god of peace) when we are interacting with the horses.”
She says specific horsemanship exercises that involve no riding are used to teach taiohi how they can adjust their breathing and their body language to keep themselves calm, improve their assertive communication skills and enable them to make good decisions when under pressure.
Laura tracked the outcomes for the 2021 funded clients and noticed there was an improvement in self-confidence, emotional regulation, assertive communication skills, self-awareness, awareness of others and mental well-being.
“We have proven results with anxiety, aggression, low self-confidence and youth justice. We tracked the client’s outcomes for three to six months after the sessions and saw amazing sustained improvements.”
Laura says feedback from referrers has been very positive.
School using kaupapa Māori to enhance mana of its students
Narratives, gods and metaphors from the Māori creation story are being used to enhance the emotional literacy and mana of schoolkids.
“It’s so much bigger than just a programme. Mana enhancement has become our everything, really – it’s become our curriculum,” says Randwick School principal Simonne Goodall.
The school has been using the Te Ara Whakamana programme since the start of the year. Through it, kids are taught about Māori atua, or gods, and use their personality traits to identify how they are feeling, so they can react to and cope in times of stress.
“It’s normal not to feel great all the time. This is about what to do when you get into that phase,” Goodall said.
Victor Maaka, 10, said “it’s helpful because you can express what you’re feeling. [Teachers and classmates] ask how they can help you”.
Randwick School principal Simonne Goodall says the mana-enhancing programme helps all students identify with and think about their backgrounds.
Ethan Withers, 9, liked learning about the gods – he said he connected most with Tāne and Tangaroa because he cared about the environment.
Each morning Randwick’s students place a card with their name under a god that reflects their mood – among others, Rongo-mā-Tāne represents peace, Rūaumoko is anger and resentment, while Tangaroa shows they are “seeking shelter from a storm”.
The system encourages students to be open about their feelings and draws a line in the sand, allowing issues to be dealt with before they come to a head.
The programme had such an impact, a mural featuring atua was commissioned for the school’s hall.
More than half of Randwick’s roll is Māori, and Goodall said it was great for those students because they could see how their culture was relevant.
Learning about kaupapa Māori was beneficial for non-Māori, too.
“It’s all about enhancing mana. Mana is not something that just Māori students have.
“The programme introduces more diversity [to the curriculum] and it encourages them to talk about their culture, and their identity.”
Goodall said Randwick had been introducing more Māori elements to school life over the last few years to acknowledge the special place tangata whenua hold in New Zealand.
“It’s about bringing the culture off the paper and into life.”
