The Board have been hard at work defining the Institute’s Mahere Rautaki | Strategic Direction in response to the opportunities and challenges facing the profession, and also Aotearoa New Zealand on a broader level. 

This started with defining our purpose:

Tuia Pito Ora The New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects Incorporated (NZILA) is the professional body providing governance for Landscape Architects in Aotearoa. Our aim is to foster and inspire the Landscape Architecture profession, ensuring it is well-equipped to benefit people, place, and nature, both now and for future generations.

From this came the important step of mapping our Kaupapa (guiding principles) as defined for our Institute and the Landscape Architecture profession in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our Kaupapa is centred around the kahikatea tree.

E tū kahikatea Hei whakapae ururoa Awhi mai awhi atu Tātou tātou e

Stand like the kahikatea tree to brave the storms,embrace and receive. We are one together

- Hirini Melbourne

The kahikatea is a symbol of strength and stature, it reminds us that it is not the individual, but the common goal for collective benefit that is important. It also reminds us that we are stronger when we stand together.

The key pillars of future proofing and growing the profession are kaitiakitanga (guardianship of the land), Kotahitanga (collective action/collaboration), manaakitanga (respect for each other and our communities), and auatahanga  (creative excellence). These guiding principles shape us, inform the narrative on which we operate, and give our community of members a collective sense of purpose to take into their work as well as their individual careers.

Our objectives are fed from the Kaupapa and tell us what we need to focus on to meet our purpose. These are:

Te Tiriti

• Give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its principles
• Actively promote and shape a bicultural Aotearoa through co-design processes with tangata whenua

Membership Value 

• Foster whanaungatanga – a sense of belonging and a sense of shared purpose
• Harness our collective mātauranga, strength, and energy to make positive change
• Cultivate and empower, the voices of future generations  

Leadership

• Advocate for the well-being of the communities of Aotearoa and te taiao.   
• Gain recognition as influential leaders in climate action and environmental stewardship.  
• Grow the public and professional perception of Landscape Architecture.  

Kaitiakitanga

• Maximise member value through professional development, creative excellence, and industry pride  
• To ensure Tuia Pito Ora is financially secure and agile in the way we operate now and into the future

Advocacy

• To foster a strong sense of environmental responsibility and urgency within our industry  
• Support members to grow their knowledge, skills, and tools to effectively contribute to climate mitigation and community adaptation efforts

With our purpose, Kaupapa, and objectives defined, together this all becomes our strategic direction, the pillars on which we will operate and through the lens of which all decisions will be made. This gives clarity to our workplans, our operating model, and the way we navigate the opportunities and challenges facing Aotearoa New Zealand. It also provides certainty for members on the Institute’s direction and operations, on an individual level what the focus for CPD and driving member value is.

View the strategy document.

We’ll be sharing more about how the strategy forms our workplans, CPD programme planning and priority focus over the coming months.