Whiria Te Muka is an indigenous whānau harm partnership between the New Zealand Police and Te Hiku Iwi. The goal of Whiria Te Muka is to reduce and prevent whānau harm in Te Hiku, while striving towards Mana Tangata.
Partnership Initiative
Whiria Te Muka is a partnership initiative between the New Zealand Police and chairs of participating rūnanga of the Social Accord. Te Hiku ō Te Ika Iwi Development Trust is privileged to be the host on behalf of the Iwi chairs. We work to reduce and prevent whānau harm and uplift Mana Tangata for the people of Te Hiku ō Te Ika Iwi.
Mana Enhancing
We adopt a mana-enhancing, whānau-centric approach in practice where we take the time to āta whakarongo (listen carefully) and strive to unpack the whakapapa to the harm that whānau are experiencing.
We contribute to change
We also have the ability to influence and contribute to change over broad systems, from intervention to prevention to thriving communities. Whiria Te Muka is a unique Iwi-Crown relationship within the Te Hiku Iwi Social Accord.
Reducing Whānau Harm - Social Return on Investment Reports
Reducing Whānau Harm
Proven Impact: $4.56 Returned for Every $1 Invested.
Whiria Te Muka continues to demonstrate value for money, delivering $4.56 in social returns for every dollar invested over the past four years (2020-2024).
This represents a significant improvement from the 2021 baseline of $4.07 per dollar invested. Building on the 2021 Social Return on Investment (SROI) evaluation by BERL, this report provides updated insights into the impact Whiria Te Muka is creating for our communities.
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga ka ngaro te iwi.
Without foresight or vision the people will be lost.
Reducing Whānau Harm
Measuring What Matters
Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis measures the real-world impact of programmes by documenting and evaluating social and environmental change. The evaluation shows that Whiria Te Muka delivers $4.07 in social returns for every dollar invested.
The Impact of Prevention
For every incident of whānau harm that Whiria Te Muka completely prevents, stakeholders benefit by an equivalent value of $61,627.
Our Focus Areas
This evaluation examined Whiria Te Muka's long-term outcomes across four key areas:
- Whānau harm reduced — Creating safer homes and communities
- Effective prevention of whānau harm — Intervening before harm occurs
- Strong Iwi and Crown partnership — Building collaborative solutions
- Mana tangata, mana whānau whānui — Restoring dignity and strengthening families
“Āpera now feels a part of something. He feels safe. Whiria Te Muka has his back. My course coordinator has his back. The marae has his back. They’re there. He didn’t have that before.”
Te Hiku service provider on collaboration with Whiria Te Muka in helping a kairiri
(A person who has inflicted harm) on his pathway towards ōranga.
“Ring up and ask for help if you need any help. I had a bit of an up and down one this morning so I needed to talk to somebody or some help. Every time I think I’m going to be stupid, I just ring up and ask for some help. ‘Cause I don’t want to go there.”
Kairiri
(A person who has inflicted harm)
on reaching out for help to Whiria Te Muka and enacting his Protection Order
“If I don’t get Janine, there’s Steve and if I can’t get Steve, there’s Rob. So, I’ve got all these links. I just know that I need to reach out when I’m in that situation. Instead of going and picking up the phone and dialling the drug people, I dial the ‘help me’ people.”
Kaingaro (A person who has used or is currently using methamphetamine)
on recognising triggers to drug dependency and reaching out to Whiria Te Muka for help.
Meth harm as a trigger of family violence
in Te Hiku
We are looking to understand the link between meth harm and reported family violence in Te Hiku. We are talking to people who have used meth, whānau, police and service providers who are giving insight into what the current landscape of meth harm looks like and what we can do to test solutions to reduce its negative impact on our whānau.
He Matauranga Hāpine
Meth harm and family violence in Te Hiku
To hāpine is to strip back the harakeke leaf to reveal the fibre inside, or the muka. We consider our muka to be the insights and essential learnings that have emerged from weaving together our reo ā nama (our unique data set) and our reo ā kupu (the whānau, community, police and iwi voices we harvest).
He Mātauranga Hāpine documents offer us a rich variety of muka in a discussion of a critical kaupapa of significance to the Whiria Te Muka initiative. These documents are created at the culmination of exploratory research and enquiry. They have the capacity to inform and influence change through a variety of pathways across our leadership, practice and design spaces.
