First Nations knowledge systems contribute important insights and context to technical impact assessment grounded in long term relationships with place, lived experience, stewardship responsibilities, collective wellbeing, and intergenerational responsibility. The future of impact assessment may not lie in choosing between knowledge systems but in understanding how they can be applied together to support more equitable, enduring, and effective outcomes: Two Waka (canoes), One Direction.

This training explores how First Nations knowledge can be meaningfully integrated with technical impact assessment (IA) and impact management processes, and the benefits and opportunities of a Dual Value Impact Assessment (DVIA) approach. Participants will examine opportunities for First Nations knowledge to enhance technical knowledge through the impact assessment process. Through practical frameworks, tools, and case-based exercises, participants will learn approaches to authentic co-design, knowledge integration, and relationship-building with First Nations stakeholders and partners.

This course is designed for culturally competent IA practitioners, ESG/CSR and engagement professionals who are ready to move beyond consultation-based approaches to authentic co-design, embedding First Nations knowledge and values into impact assessment and supporting culturally informed decision making for sustainable outcomes. It may also be of value to First Nations representatives interested in impact assessment.

Level: Intermediate

Prerequisites: 

• Minimum 2 years working in impact assessment or project-based engagement with/representing First Nations peoples.
• Knowledge of/experience working with United Nations Human Rights and Rights of Indigenous Peoples guidance or similar global standards.

Language: English

Duration: 1 day (19 April)

Min/Max: 12-25

Price: $330

Instructor: Julie Boucher, Principal: Social Sustainability and Planning, Just Add Lime (New Zealand) and Gladys Henderson, Economic Strategist, ā-Rautaki (New Zealand)

Julie Boucher is a social impact assessment, engagement and facilitation specialist with more than 20 years’ experience across New Zealand and Australia. Her work focuses on complex infrastructure, transport, resource and regional development projects where community, agency, technical and tangata whenua interests need to be understood and carefully balanced. Julie brings practical experience in designing engagement strategies, facilitating structured workshops, undertaking social impact assessments, and translating complex project information into clear, accessible material. She is also an accredited Engagement Institute Licensed Trainer and delivers IAP2 and bespoke training, including landowner engagement training for NZTA. Julie’s contribution to the course is the practical “how to” of impact assessment: how to scope issues, identify affected communities, understand different experiences of impact, design meaningful engagement, assess significance and develop practical responses.

Gladys Henderson brings specialist expertise in mātauranga Māori, Māori economic development, governance, investment and culturally grounded decision-making. Of Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue and Te Arawa descent, Gladys has more than 30 years’ experience across banking, enterprise, research and education. Her work helps organisations understand how Māori values, knowledge systems and intergenerational responsibilities can inform assessment, investment and decision-making. Gladys is recognised for approaches that integrate cultural, economic, environmental and social outcomes, including triple and quadruple bottom line thinking. Her contribution to the course is the deeper mātauranga Māori and economic lens: how principles such as whakapapa, mauri, mana, kaitiakitanga, rangatiratanga and manaakitanga can shift what is valued, how impacts are understood, and what better outcomes can look like.