Aotearoa New Zealand is changing. The relationship between the inequities iwi Māori face and centuries of colonisation is clear. The need to address these inequities and the embedded colonial thinking that reinforces them in our society is more widely accepted. Nowhere is this need for change more acute than in education. The challenge of embedding bicultural principles into all aspects of education is a significant step in decolonising education. The practice of learning design and the design of frameworks that guide education rarely have a clear process to support a bicultural approach.

Interviews with 22 kaitiaki (environmental guardians) from 14 tribes spread throughout the North Island of New Zealand revealed a common concern that the abundance and diversity of sea foods have declined along much of the coastline over the past 30–50 years. While Western conservationists have tended to emphasise ecological impacts, kaitiaki are concerned at both ecological and cultural consequences of the losses. Cultural consequences include severance of links between people and the food species, reduced connections between people in the community, erosion of ways that kinship is maintained, severed transmission of cultural knowledge, and impaired health and tribal development.