by Metropol | August 20, 2025 8:30 am
Many Māori-led businesses are going from strength to strength and have achieved notable success in various sectors, contributing $32 billion (8.9% of GDP) in 2023 and reaching an asset base of $126 billion. These businesses often prioritise sustainability, community well-being, and preserving cultural heritage, offering a values-based alternative to the mainstream economy.
While the Māori economy is thriving and diversifying, New Zealand needs to overcome various structural constraints if the full potential of Māori values-led economies at scale is realised, says a recent report from the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa (WEAll) called Amplifying Māori Approaches, which explores the vast, still-untapped potential of the Māori economy and how it could reshape New Zealand’s economic future.
From period wear brands like AWWA to health brands like Two Islands and dairy companies like Miraka Holdings, Māori-led businesses are innovating business models and contributing to the national economy. As are iwi-led enterprises such as Ngāi Tahu Holdings, which – through prudent investment – has grown its 1998 Treaty settlement of $170 million for breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, into $1.66 billion in net assets in order to provide for future generations: mō tātou, ā, mō kā uri ā muri ake nei (for us and our children after us).
The Whāriki Māori Business Network, which is the largest collective of Māori businesses in Aotearoa, now supports 6670 Māori professionals representing 3676 businesses across 43 industries, underscoring the sector’s growing scale and reach.
However, fully unlocking the true potential and prosperity of the Māori economy – for the good of all New Zealanders – lies in enabling Māori businesses and organisations to thrive according to Te Ao Māori values and practices, argues the report.
“Conventional approaches say economies revolve around assets being worked by waged labour and exchanged on markets. These things can be measured and quantified, often in monetary terms,” the report states. A Te Ao Māori perspective is that some critical elements of an economy cannot be measured and quantified but are essential to wellbeing. For example, the true value of taonga such as land and water cannot be reflected on a balance sheet or through numerical values.
Download the full Amplifying Māori Approaches report at weall.org.nz/ama. WEAll Aotearoa is part of the international Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll), a collaboration of 19 countries working to transform the global economic system into one that addresses the root causes of major challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
Source URL: https://metropol.co.nz/unleashing-the-maori-economy/
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