Haumanu
Seeding climate action from a place of connection
What is Haumanu?
Haumanu has been developed by through the Centre for Social Impact since 2021 through the work of Louise Marra, Tuihana Ohia, Kate Cherrington, Rachael Trotman and Chloe Harwood.
Read more about Haumanu here.
Haumanu is a relational approach to strengthening how we show up for climate action.
It recognises that climate work doesn’t just happen through strategy and policy.
It also happens through the state we bring to it.
When we work from disconnection - from ourselves, from each other, from te taiao - collaboration becomes harder. Urgency turns into tension. Silos deepen. Fatigue grows.
When we work from connection, trust grows, listening deepens and coordination becomes more easeful.
Haumanu creates space to:
Reconnect with yourself, one another and te taiao
Notice how your inner state shapes how you lead and collaborate
Strengthen relational trust before the wānanga
Build simple practices that support resilience and ease in your everyday mahi
This about arriving well and strengthening the foundations of our climate work.
Why are we offering this?
Climate action in Tāmaki Makaurau is rich and committed, and also under pressure.
Across the ecosystem, people are carrying urgency, responsibility, complexity and care. Historical and current forces have created fragmentation across sectors and communities. This impacts how easily we can align.
Collective conversations best when participants arrive:
Connected to themselves
Connected to each other
Connected to place
Able to listen across difference
Resourced rather than running on empty
Haumanu helps create those conditions.
We are tending the soil that this wānanga will grow from.
What will we explore?
This session is grounded in three elements of the Haumanu kaupapa.
TAONGA
Understanding what resources you
We’ll introduce accessible nervous system insights to help you recognise:
What connection feels like in your body
What disconnection feels like
How different states shape your climate work
What helps you return to steadiness when things feel pressured
You’ll leave with practical tools you can use in your mahi, whānau and community.
PAPATŪĀNUKU
Reconnecting with place and te taiao
We’ll spend time in te taiao (in the ngāhere and by the moana) guided by Zane Wedding sharing mātauranga Māori that reconnects us with Papatūānuku.
Through kōrero and experience, we’ll explore:
Our interconnection with the natural world
The belonging and balance present in ecological systems
How climate action feels when it’s rooted in place and connection to te taiao
This is about remembering that we are part of nature, not separate from it, and allowing that awareness to shape how we act.
WHAKAWHANAUNGATANGA
Strengthening relational trust
We’ll create space for meaningful kōrero in small groups.
Not to talk climate action, but to understand one another.
Climate work requires collaboration across difference. Trust does not appear automatically. It is built.
Haumanu strengthens the relational field so that coordination becomes easier during the wānanga.
The ways we show up together now will shape the future our mokopuna inherit.
The Haumanu Journey
The Haumanu pre-sessions take us on a haerenga around Tāmaki Makaurau, connecting with te taiao and one another so we arrive at the wānanga in Point Chevalier grounded and ready.
You’re welcome to attend part 1, part 2 or both stages of the journey.
Part 1:
Online introduction
A gentle and practical introduction to Haumanu.
Choose one 75-minute online session:
Session A
31 March, 12.30 - 1.45pmSession B
1 April, 4.30 - 5.45pm
Together we’ll explore:
Why the state we seed climate action from matters
The link between connection and effective systems change
Simple grounding and awareness practices
A shared language we will draw on during the wānanga
Book your preferred online session here:
Part 2:
In-person Haumanu experience
A deeper, place-based experience in te taiao.
Choose one full-day session:
(10am – 3pm, lunch provided)
South & East
11 April, Māngere Mountain Education CentreCentral & West
15 April, Blockhouse Bay Boat ClubNorth
18 April, Kaipātiki Project (Birkdale)
Each session will include:
Time in nature guided by mātauranga Māori
Practical grounding practices
Small-group whakawhanaungatanga
Exploration of connection and disconnection in climate work
Tools you can bring back into your life and mahi
Places are limited to maintain relational depth.
Book your preferred session below:
Participation
Haumanu sessions are open to all attendees of the Future Search Wānanga (1-3 May 2026).
These sessions are optional to attend. However, we strongly encourage participation if your schedule allows.
The quality of our collective work is shaped by the quality of our relationships.
Accessibility
We aim to make these sessions as accessible as possible.
Indoor venues are wheelchair accessible. We will spend time outdoors.
You’ll be invited to share access needs in the registration form.
Read more about our approach to equity & reciprocity here.
If you have specific accessibility questions, please contact lydia@co-aotearoa.org
Facilitators
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Shruthi Vijayakumar
South India
Shruthi Vijayakumar is a coach, facilitator, educator, and systems change strategist, of South India descent based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Shruthi runs her own business Rooted Rising and has worked with social enterprises, business schools and changemakers across various countries from Asia to Europe and the USA. Her work weaves leadership development, healing, and systems change helping leaders and teams cultivate regenerative approaches drawing from diverse knowledge systems, wisdom traditions, and worldviews. She holds an MBA from the University of Oxford specialising in sustainability and systems change and has been recognised as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper. She also co-founded the Fire Circle, a collective of Elders of Indigenous, Eastern and Western backgrounds, which supports intergenerational wisdom exchange in service of creating a just and flourishing future.
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Zane Wedding
Ngaati Pikiao
Zane is an activist, youth worker, storyteller, rākau defender and educator who holds justice in one hand and healing in the other. Zane is General Manager at Māngere Mountain Education Centre working to connect rangatahi with whenua and whakapapa through maunga and māra. Many will remember Zane living in the trees of Canal Road, fiercely protecting these tupuna. You’ll find him on the front lines of many direct action campaigns across kauapapa from climate to Te Tiriti justice to Palestine action and LGBTQ+ rights as he sees all these as interconnected with the vision for a just and liberated world. Zane is a trained Haumanu facilitator, guiding individuals and groups in practices that restore connection to self, community and te taiao. Zane finds joy in birdsong, annoying police officers and destroying colonial fictions. His mahi is inspired by the whakatauki: Ko te piko o te maahuri teeraa te tipu o te raakau - the way you nurture the sapling can be seen inside the tree.
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Cecilia Vakameilalo-Kioa
Tonga, Samoa
Cecilia has had the privilege of serving the kaupapa of Leadership New Zealand as a small group facilitator, programme connector and manager of the Mana Moana Experience (community service leadership programme), Tū Mau Mana Moana (public service leadership programme), and the NZ Leadership Programme. Through her training in Haumanu facilitation, she continues to deepen her practice, bringing a gentle, healing presence to the spaces she is invited to serve.
Register for your Haumanu sessions
To ensure we can host these spaces well:
Please book only the sessions you intend to attend
If your plans change, let us know as soon as possible
Waitlists will be managed if sessions reach capacity
Please contact lydia@co-aotearoa.org with any questions about these events.
Part 1: Online intro
Part 2: In-person experience
FAQs
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Haumanu sessions are open to registered participants of the Future Search wānanga.
If you have not yet registered for the wānanga, please do so first using the link in your invitation email.
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No. Haumanu is optional. However, we strongly encourage participation if your schedule allows. You are welcome to attend one or both parts.
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No, there is no fee to attend the Haumanu sessions or the wānanga thanks to the support of our funders. If you would incur additional costs to attend the Haumanu sessions (e.g. travel, childcare, accessibility) which may prohibit your ability to attend, please contact lydia@co-aotearoa.org to discuss possibilities for support.
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We’ve selected locations that allow us to be in nourishing parts of te taiao such as native bush and by the moana and we’ve picked different spots to make it accessible to wānanga attendees based in different parts of Tāmaki Makaurau. Together we will gather the mauri of te taiao around Tāmaki and bring it into the wānanga with us.
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These are participatory sessions. You’re invited to bring yourself, with no preparation and no need to work too hard during.
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The Haumanu approach deliberately centres relational safety, tikanga, and mana-enhancing practices so participants can bring all parts of themselves to the work. It’s important to us that you’re able to participate as fully and easefully as possible. Please share any specific accessibility and inclusion needs with our Project Lead, Lydia, at lydia@co-aotearoa.org.
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We aim to make all Haumanu sessions as accessible as possible. You will be invited to share your needs in the registration form.
The indoor venues for the in-person sessions are all wheelchair accessible. We will also spend part of the day outdoors. Please contact lydia@co-aotearoa.org to discuss which would be the most accessible location to attend.