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Download AudioAs the Prime Minister’s trade mission to China winds up, a paper published in Oxford University’s prestigious journal International Affairs credits Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta with evolution rather than a revolution in diplomacy.
Co-author Bonnie Holster, who’s doing a Masters in international trade at Victoria University of Wellington, says she has incorporated Te Ao Maori relationship principles into our foreign affairs protocols, especially with China.
She’s done it in a way that aligns with many Indo-Asian countries’ own cultural practices.
“We’ve been able to create a very unique and distinct relationship with China, by focusing on the relationality aspect of it, possibly a bit more than our other Anglo-sphere partners such as Australia, and the UK and Canada. I think using the relationality and the Maori ontology of the Te Ao Maori view has really helped us.
Bonnie Holster, of Ngati Tuwharetoa, Ngati Whakaue, and Ngati Rangiwewehi iwi, says Nanaia Mahuta is proving Maori have value to add to Aotearoa both domestically and internationally.
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