Mahitahi me te Taiao: co-designing in Māori, te Tiriti, transdisciplinary and Aotearoa native forest contexts

While co-design as a working model in research has been applied extensively, this article explores it in relation to Māori (Indigenous peoples of New Zealand) perspectives and, particularly in transdisciplinary research contexts. The concept of co-design is initially considered in relation to current literature and then how it has been engaged specifically in te ao Māori (the Māori world) contexts. This article outlines the Mobilising for Action research programme, a transdisciplinary research programme co-led by Māori and non-Māori researchers that focussed on the human dimensions of forest health and, more specifically, in relation to the plant diseases kauri dieback, Phytophthora agathidicida and myrtle rust, Austropuccinia psidii in Aotearoa (New Zealand). It presents three case studies from the project that engaged with co-design as a key component to their research design. Drawing from the experiences gained from these case studies and from the wider literature, the authors propose a kaupapa Māori (Māori platformed and shaped) model for co-design.