Māori housing enterprise Aotearoa New Zealand: analysing leadership navigators and barriers within urban papakāinga process

Housing inequities are a growing global crisis. In Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa), Māori (Indigenous population) are severely impacted by this crisis due to contradictory ontologies and ideologies within the housing sector relating to Indigenous and Western viewpoints. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate barriers and navigators for stakeholders involved in urban papakāinga (modern Māori housing, sustainable city-based intergenerational ecosystem). Twenty in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with urban papakāinga leaders. The barriers identified included the funding application process and procedure. Navigators included six ontological principles: whakakitenga (holistic visioning), whakawhanaungatanga (gathering and weaving alliances), honongatanga (solidifying professional partnerships), tohungatanga (forming specialist papakāinga management), whakaponotanga (creating harmony through trust, truth, and honesty), and kotahitanga (establishing unity through kinship and oneness). The significance of investigating barriers and navigators from the perspective of Indigenous housing leadership is to identify strategies that support development of sustainable and culturally-sound urban environments. Theoretical implications include housing developments for Aotearoa, other First Nation and Indigenous communities.