Mana Wahine in Motion: Navigating Pakihi Māori within Hospitality and Tourism

Abstract

The hospitality and tourism sectors are a cornerstone of Aotearoa New Zealand’s economy and serve as the primary conduit through which the nation’s cultural identity is projected globally. Yet, within this space, a profound duality exists between transactional Western business models and the Indigenous practice of manaakitanga. Currently, the institutional frameworks used to measure commercial success remain deeply rooted in Eurocentric paradigms. These frameworks function as a colonial “second law” that continuously attempts to marginalise Aotearoa’s first law of tikanga Māori.

To address this epistemological disconnect and promote the sector’s sustainable future, this research investigates the multifaceted determinants of Māori economic success. The study explores how tikanga, kaupapa, and te ao Māori actively shape organisational performance and community uplift, moving beyond standard commercial metrics to evaluate enterprise through an Indigenous lens.

This investigation adopted an Indigenous interpretivist paradigm and a Kaupapa Māori methodology to ensure the research was conducted in a culturally safe and empowering manner. Through this framework, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five wāhine Māori entrepreneurs, centering their lived experiences and voices as the primary data source for understanding pakihi Māori.

A central revelation of this thesis is the profound operationalisation of mana wahine. The inherent spiritual, political, and ancestral power of Māori women within these commercial spaces. Mana wahine emerges as the ultimate driving force for cultural reclamation, emotional healing, and entrepreneurial resilience. The findings reveal that these wāhine leaders explicitly reject linear, profit-only motives; instead, they function as paradigm warriors who enact collective Māori leadership to foster relational wellbeing and ecological sustainability. Furthermore, their economic activity is actively utilised as leverage for social justice, ensuring that authentic ancestral storytelling and the protection of tribal whenua are prioritised over the commercial sanitisation of their culture. To synthesise these findings, this thesis conceptualises and applies Te Whare Ōhanga Tapa Rima, a five-dimensional framework that adapts Sir Mason Durie’s holistic health model into a culturally validated architecture for measuring Māori economic wellbeing. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that Māori entrepreneurship is a profound act of tino rangatiratanga, driven by mana wahine, that redefines commercial success entirely on Indigenous terms.