BSNS 201–

‘Authenticity’
Lecture Plan Overview

• L1: Te Rūnanga o Ngai Tahu case study

• L2: Intergenerationality
• L3: Social Impact
• Today: Authenticity
• L5: Identity & Identification
Today

• Why is authenticity important to Māori organizations?

• Who else works on authenticity?
• What insights does that provide into the relationship
between business and society?
 Authenticity
• Definition: Being of undisputed origin, faithful to an original, a reliable
and accurate representation
• Authenticity in business is a value judgement related to concepts such
as reliability, respectfulness, realness
• It invokes a sense of trustworthiness, being who they say they are, or,
being who you expect a business to be
• Communications agency Cohn & Wolfe surveyed 15,000 consumers in
2017, the most authentic brands were: Amazon, Microsoft, Disney,
LEGO, BMW (David Goldsmith, Forbes, 2019)
• The most authentic brands in NZ according to a 2019 survey: Ecostore,
Lime scooters, Icebreaker, IKEA, Lewis Road Creamery
• The most trusted brands in NZ 2022: Whittakers, Rymans, Summerset,
Masport
Authenticity & Māori
• For Māori, authenticity is a significant and ongoing issue
• ‘Being Māori’ or ‘Being indigenous’ a contested idea
• Defining ‘Māoriness’: blood quantum, appearance, cultural
knowledge and/or engagement
• Until 1926, required 50%+ Māori blood to be Māori; from 1986
census allowed people to identify as Māori
• Used by some to deconstruct Māori identity and existence by
assimilating it biologically out of existence
• Those who visit their marae, speak te reo, are ‘more Māori’!?
 ‘Indigenous’ gin
“...strongly held opinions expressed on our social
media channels...regarding...our original gin bottle but
also our brand ‘Indiginous’...”

“...never about being or perceived to be Māori...”

• Sought and acquired approval from the Māori

Advisory Committee of the Intellectual Property
Office of New Zealand
• Specified the name was to spotlight local suppliers
who were used to make the drink
• Design by a Samoan artist who lived in a community
with a significant Māori population

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12313853
Authentic Māori?
• Colonial narrative
• From Tasman’s first visit to Cook & post-Treaty: Māori
characterized as physical, non-cerebral, uncivilized, war-like,
savage
• Education system structured to point Māori in particular
directions, in 1931 the Director-General of Education:
“education should lead the Māori boy to become a good farmer,
and the Māori girl to become a good farmer’s wife.”
• Today: scientist or sportsperson?
 Authentic Māori?

What does it mean to be Māori?

• ‘Cultural’ or ‘spiritual’
• On welfare
• Domestic abuser
• Criminal
• Uneducated
• Sporty
• Musical
 ‘Authentic’ Ngāi Tahu
Our case study: Ngāi Tahu
• Unique dynamics of the largest tribal area, most dispersed population,
significant intermarriage with Pākehā from as early as late 1790s,
sealers and whalers in the south
• The ‘white’ tribe
• Loss of language, custom from loss of land, however maintained
traditional food gathering processes (mahinga kai)
• Reality for seven generations of Ngāi Tahu: impoverished, seeking
reparation
• Today, post-settlement phase: what is being ‘Ngāi Tahu’ look like now,
living outside of the tribal rohe, in Australia, limited engagement yet
passionate sense of connection
Te Ao Māori (Māori Worldview)
•No ‘Māori nation’, tribal with own histories, protocols etc., however, all
Māori adhere to a set of values that have meaning within the context of
community
•Beliefs & values informs custom
•tika = correct; tikanga: the appropriate way to act
– Mana – status, esteem, worth, value, prestige, influence
– Tapu & noa – restricted & free, safe
– Utu – balance, relationship restoration
– Whanaungatanga – shared connection
– Manaakitanga – generosity, care, hospitality, encouraging mana
– Kaitiakitanga – guardianship, stewardship

Relevance to business: Is an authentic Māori business one that displays these values?
What benefit is there in these elements being quantified? How do you do that?
Can non-Māori adhere to a Māori worldview in their business? Is that a ‘Māori business’?
 Te Ao Māori (Māori Worldview)

Reminder: Atua God

Tūpuna Ancestors
Waka Multiple tribes
Iwi Tribe
Hapū Sub-tribe

Whānau Family
Individual
Tangata
Framed by whakapapa

Whakapapa is fundamental to identity: how does it relate to being ‘authentic’?

Defining cultural authenticity
• Purpose– this is an ‘identity’ based
business
• Context of a Māori identity
• often homogenized, but in reality,
tribal, sub-tribal

• For social procurement purposes, an

Indigenous businesses defined as one with
50% or more owners
• Te Puni Kōkiri (Ministry of Māori
Development) define a Māori business as
50% or more Māori owned
• What about employees, values practiced,
customers, products?
Why is cultural authenticity important?

Being a Māori business holds:

• Judgements from multiple stake-holders
• Expectations on:
• operation: who do you employ? environmental impacts?
• business industries: primary industry? technology? tourism?
casino?
• employee treatment: expectations for cultural engagement,
fallout from covid
• fidelity to historical and contemporary ‘perceptions’: which
image of Māori is ‘authentic’?
 Ngāi Tahu Pounamu

• Tracing scheme: authentication system allows a purchaser to view the

original stone, the carver and something about the design
• Brand protection against a significant black market
• Allows a premium to be charged
• TRoNT invests profit from sale of stone into social initiatives
• Tension: some carvers feel their independence is threatened

https://www.teaomaori.news/ngai-tahu-establish-nz-pounamu-authentication-scheme
 How are Māori businesses practicing
authenticity?
• Decision making tools
• Organisational policy on
‘boundaries’ of authenticity, what
is authentic and what is not;
targets: what are we trying to
achieve?

Measuring impact
• Commercial - Economic
• Whanaungatanga - Community
• Mana Whenua - Educational
• Kaitiakitanga - Environmental
• Mana Tipuna - Historical
e.g. Mauri-o-meter
http://mauriometer.org/
e.g. Manawa Kai Tahu
Measuring success: more than just economic
aspirations
How are Māori businesses practicing
authenticity?

Accountability to:
• Shareholders
• Employees
• Whānau, hapū, iwi; primary focus moving from iwi to hapū
• Society
• Do Māori and their businesses have a responsibility to society?
• Should it be different to other businesses?
• Is it reasonable to judge Māori business by different measures?
• What other types of businesses are, or should, have different or
increased responsibility to society?
Is ‘authenticity’ relevant to other businesses?

• Market advantage

• Types:
• Moral e.g. health companies, faith or value-based
• Type e.g. ethnic restaurants

• How do we think about authenticity:

• “Walking the talk” – what happens behind closed doors
• Sincerity, genuine, integrity
• Identity on the line for stakeholders: what the business does
impacts self
• Potential for disaster – inauthenticity can destroy a business
How is authenticity different for Māori
organisations?

Claimed vs Ascribed
• Claimed:
• market advantage & position
• emotive connection
• ride the current wave of popularity

• Ascribed
• presumed, expected
• by default, certain values & behaviour expected
Potential authenticity types
Ascribed Authenticity
+ presumed or deemed to conform to standards
of cultural authenticity
+ values-based entities
+ e.g. Indigenous, faith-based, environmental
Optional Distanced Authenticity
+ an organisation meets an objective criteria for
claimed authenticity, but obscures that fact for
strategic positioning
+ type authenticity will therefore become
primary to effectively supplant cultural
associations.
Optional Claimed Authenticity
+ likely to require evidence of ‘right’ to claim
cultural authenticity, such as proof of majority
ownership held by individuals or collectives of
Māori descent 
Prescribed
+ cannot claim cultural authenticity, on the
basis they do not have a ‘right’ of claim to
cultural identity, e.g. where there is no or
insufficient Māori ownership or participation
+ cultural appropriation and ‘ethnic fraud’
 
Authenticity Tensions
• What (Who’s) standards apply?
• What are the measures? Does standard business reporting
reflect them?
• How do non-Māori marketers promote Māori content? Should
they?
• What ‘timezone’?
• i.e. for Māori, fidelity to a past reality?
• Which generation is ‘authentic’?
• Purist (traditional) vs Fused (blended with modernity over time)
• Who decides?
• Ngāi Tahu: positive business identity / negative ‘traditionalist’
identity – “sell-outs”
• Māori? Pākehā? The market?