It's Not a Toki on the Wall: Why Te Ao Māori Matters in New Zealand Workplaces

For Russell Spratt, co-founder of Tau Mai and General Manager of Tribe Group's Wellington office, this isn't theoretical. It's whakapapa.

"The guy that I descend from, Wī Parata, he actually founded the town," Russell says of Waikanae, his hometown. His iwi connections run through Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa, and Ngāti Tūwharetoa. "You can't divorce yourself from your iwi. It's just who you are."

That grounding is what led Russell, more than 25 years into a recruitment and executive search career, to co-found Tau Mai, Tribe Group's Te Ao Māori specialist recruitment brand. And it's the foundation for a challenge he puts to every New Zealand business leader: engaging with Te Ao Māori isn't a compliance exercise or a branding decision. It's a genuine business and national opportunity, but only if it's done properly.

Why now?

Russell points to three distinct parts of the New Zealand labour market where this matters, and where the opportunity is only growing.

The first is iwi Māori organisations themselves. "The Māori economy in of itself is a very powerful place that needs lots of really cool people," Russell says, describing how the treaty settlement process has "re-energised natural entrepreneurship" within Māoridom.

The second is the state sector, where central and local government carry legal obligations tied to the treaty settlement process, obligations that translate directly into roles requiring genuine Te Ao Māori capability and mātauranga Māori.

The third is everywhere else: private businesses and not-for-profits starting to recognise what Russell lays out plainly. Māori is the fastest-growing demographic in the country, the fastest-growing share of the tertiary-educated population, and an increasingly significant economic force in its own right.

"If you're in this group over here, group number three, you'll be looking at that going, I wonder whether I can get a bit of that," Russell says. "And so that sets up a whole additional dynamic to the Māori labour market."

The stats behind the opportunity

For Russell, none of this is separate from a harder truth. "When you have a look at some of those gaps, education, health, longevity, those stats for Māori, they're grim," he says. "That's factual."

The case for genuine engagement with Te Ao Māori isn't framed as charity or box-ticking. It's framed as fixing something real. "It is about bridging gaps. It is about ensuring that there is equity. It is about ensuring that potential is realised," Russell says. "When we do that as a country, New Zealand is better off."

What doing it properly actually looks like

Russell is direct about what genuine engagement is not. "What it isn't is a little toki on the wall and some rooms named with Māori words," he says. "That's not what I'm talking about."

Instead, he describes a mindset shift that starts with a single trait: curiosity. "Curiosity is cool, because all of a sudden you can be four again in the sandpit. You can be there with your shovel, doing things, just making stuff and just looking and seeing what works." In practice, that means being genuinely willing to ask questions, sit with discomfort, and learn.

But curiosity on its own isn't enough. Russell's second requirement is tougher: an honest heart. "If you are not genuinely committed to playing a role in helping to bridge gaps to improve the fortunes of others, please don't do it. Because you're setting yourself and others up for disappointment. And there's already enough disappointment, frankly."

For businesses willing to do the work properly, Russell describes what actually changes: "You're going to find that by allowing Māori perspectives in, Māori knowledge frameworks, ways of thinking, you're going to allow a bigger focus on people. Respect of people, respect of resource, respect of responsibility, respect of shared endeavour." Not symbols on a wall. Ways of being that show up in how decisions actually get made.

Purpose is the connector

Underneath all of it, Russell keeps returning to a single idea: purpose. Asked how real it is for Māori talent to find workplaces where they feel safe to be authentically themselves, his answer is blunt. "It's critically important. It's the rub."

"When you've joined that purpose bit up with what you're doing, you are exponentially more powerful," he says. "And you're having a better life."

That's true for individuals navigating their careers, and Russell argues it's just as true for organisations trying to work out why engaging with Te Ao Māori matters to them specifically, beyond the fact that it's the right thing to do.

The takeaway for New Zealand businesses

Engaging with Te Ao Māori isn't a marketing decision or a diversity metric to report on. It's a genuine opportunity to build better, more grounded organisations, but only for leaders willing to show up with real curiosity and real commitment, not performative gestures. As Russell puts it, the alternative is simple: "You could just be selling widgets." This is so much more than that.

Want to understand what genuine engagement with Te Ao Māori could look like for your organisation? Get in touch with Russell and the team at Tau Mai for a chat.

This article draws on Tribe Group's Find Your People podcast, featuring Russell Spratt, co-founder of Tau Mai and GM of Tribe Group's Wellington office. Watch the full conversation here.