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.

Photo of a group of people on a boardwalk in the bush looking up at native palms

The Haumanu Journey

The Haumanu pre-sessions are a shared haerenga - connecting with te taiao and one another so we arrive at the wānanga grounded, connected and ready.

You’re welcome to take part in Part 1, Part 2 or both stages of the journey. We recommend attending at least one session from each part if you can.

Close up image of a fern leaf

Part 1:
Online introduction

A gentle and practical introduction to Haumanu.

Choose one 75-minute online session:

  • Session A
    9 April, 4.30 - 5.45pm

  • Session B
    10 April, 12.00 - 1.15pm

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 1: ONLINE INTRO
Image of trees looking up from the ground with blue sky in the background

A deeper, place-based experience to support you to feel grounded, connected and resourced.

Choose one or both options:

  • In person: Parnell Rose Gardens
    Wed 15 April, 1-4pm
    A guided experience in te taiao, including a gentle hīkoi from rākau to moana, connecting with place, story and one another.

  • Virtual: From your own outdoor space
    Sun 19 April, 1-4pm
    A guided experience in te taiao, including a gentle hīkoi from rākau to moana, connecting with place, story and one another.

Each session will include:

  • Time in te taiao guided by mātauranga Māori

  • Accessible grounding practices

  • Small-group whakawhanaungatanga

  • Exploration of connection and disconnection in climate work

  • Practical tools you can bring back into your life and mahi

Book your part session(s) here:

Part 2:
Haumanu in te taiao

PART 2: IN-PERSON
PART 2: VIRTUAL

The ways we show up together now will shape the future our mokopuna inherit.

Participation

Haumanu sessions are open to all registered participants of the Future Search Wānanga (1–3 May 2026).

These sessions are optional. However, we strongly encourage participation if your schedule allows.

The quality of our collective work is shaped by the quality of our relationships. Haumanu is one way we begin tending that together.

Accessibility

We aim to make these sessions as accessible as possible.

The in-person session includes time outdoors and a gentle walk, including some stairs. The online session offers a way to participate from your own environment in a way that suits your needs.

You’ll be invited to share access needs in the registration form, and we welcome kōrero in advance to support your participation.

Read more about our approach to equity and accessibility here.

For any specific accessibility questions, please contact kiaora@co-aotearoa.org

Haumanu Facilitators

Picture of Shruthi Vijayakumar, an Indian woman with black long hair flowing over her shoulders.

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.

Headshot of Cecelia Vakameilalo-Kioa, a Tongan-Samoan woman wearing a black shirt and black glasses with shoulder-length wavy hair smiling at the camera.

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.

Headshot of Zane wedding, a Māori man lying on the horizontal trunk of a Pohutukawa tree gesturing to himself with his hands as he speaks.

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. 

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 kiaora@co-aotearoa.org with any questions about these events.

Partner with us

We’re deeply grateful for the support of partners committed to a thriving Tāmaki Makaurau. We welcome additional partners to help us deepen the impact of this work.

Download the partnership pack below to see how your organisation can support this kaupapa.

Part 1: Online intro


Part 2: In te taiao (choose one)

REGISTER
15 APRIL: IN-PERSON
19 APRIL: VIRTUAL
DOWNLOAD PARTNERSHIP PACK

FAQs

  • 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.

  • No. Haumanu is optional. However, we strongly encourage participation if your schedule allows. You are welcome to attend one or both parts.

  • 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.

  • These are participatory sessions. You’re invited to bring yourself, with no preparation and no need to work too hard during. We aim for you to leave feeling more grounded, connected and resourced.

  • 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.

  • We aim to make all Haumanu sessions as accessible as possible. You will be invited to share your needs in the registration form.

    The in-person session will involve a gentle walk or roll from the garden down to St Judes Bay. This will involve some stairs. Please contact lydia@co-aotearoa.org to discuss how we can design this session to meet your needs.