Tau-utuutu: The Development of a Living Vision for the Unitec School of Architecture

Late in 2019 a small group of Pākehā staff at Unitec School of Architecture organised an initiative to review the course structure after relocating to a different building on campus. Gifted a name, Tau-utuutu, by Kaihautū Kimoro Taiepa, they facilitated a series of staff engagement workshops, and from this extensive staff feedback developed a draft Living Vision document that identified the interconnected issues of the climate emergency and colonisation. However, it became evident that the process to that point had lacked genuine partnership with tangata whenua. Subsequent, kōrero with Ngā Ia Vai, the Māori and Pacific caucus within the school, resulted in a collaborative presentation to the Unitec Research Symposium in December 2021. This paper records the process of getting to this presentation phase and suggests that a deeper understanding of the responses might be gained through the twin languages of drawing and kōrero. The paper acknowledges the significance of Te Noho Kotahitanga, an existing partnership document at Unitec, and calls for action to implement the ideals and values of te Tiriti o Waitangi in order to decarbonise and decolonise the Unitec Architecture programme.