Building a Māori worldview at AECOM with Rikona Andrews
Rikona Andrews is Māori Communications Specialist in New Zealand.
Rikona sees the world differently from how you probably do. He grew up in what he calls a “Māori world bubble”.
This doesn’t just mean that he spoke the language. Rikona was fully immersed in the stories and cultures passed down through generations of his whakapapa (genealogy/lineage). For Rikona, it wasn’t until his early teens that he realised most people don’t see oceans, rivers and mountains as alive with the narratives of their ancestors’ experience. That they don’t see beneath the concrete built around them, built upon tribal boundaries more than 1,000 years old, and the obligation to uphold the stories that bind people to place.
AECOM’s Te Ao Māori journey
Rikona provides a Māori worldview guiding our Te Ao Māori (a world through a Māori lens) journey at AECOM, as our people develop a genuine understanding of Te Ao Māori and how to embed its principles across the organisation, both internally and in work with our clients. His perspective is the thread that connects us to iwi and mana whenua, growing our partnerships in a culturally informed way.
This journey is grounded in the values, actions and measurable outcomes in our Mahere Rautaki Māori strategy, which keeps us accountable on progress. It documents our commitment to embed Te Ao Māori and acknowledges our obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi).
Making the commitment through our Mahere Rautaki Māori strategy was simply the beginning. Rikona joined our team in Aotearoa as Māori Communications Specialist to bring the strategy to life. Real progress and depth could only be achieved through knowledge sharing from someone like Rikona, who has both lived cultural experience shaped by Te Ao Māori, and a practical ability to uplift organisations without alienating people along the way.
Internal shifts: From symbolism to shared responsibility
When Rikona joined AECOM, his first question was “what’s our karakia?” (a Māori chant often used in the workplace to set intention and acknowledge people and place, and create a sense of respect, safety and connection). He was given a booklet with more than 10 opening and closing karakia to choose from. Of course, it meant the practice was unfamiliar and daunting, and no non-Māori person knew any version by heart.
What came next for Rikona was small but focused: he stripped all the versions back to one opening and one closing karakia. He focuses on educating people about the depth and meaning of the message, working with them until they can recite, understand and confidently share it with others. For Rikona, there’s no point moving on until it becomes lived practice. The change was a small but powerful step that left people wanting to learn more. It has opened the space for richer conversations in which colleagues learn the layers of the meaning in the karakia, and the practice has become normalised as a shared responsibility.
He also led a major clean‑up of language and communications and now encourages staff to check Māori phrasing with him to ensure accuracy across regional dialects and conventions. He empowers staff through his tailored cultural capability training and resources, and mentors a cohort of Māori champions.
External outcomes: The three-step engagement framework
While his earlier work at AECOM was focused on building internal foundations, Rikona is now deeply focused on showing up genuinely with iwi on projects. Guided by Te Ao Māori, Rikona knows that genuine partnerships aren’t formed in meetings or through job titles, but through understanding iwi (Māori tribes) stories and their whakapapa. His three-step engagement framework is setting the benchmark for forming meaningful partnerships:
- Pre‑meeting: Project teams meet internally first, sharing who they are, where they are from and who they represent, and deliberately shifting from purely professional identities to full human ones, where laughter and friendly conversation is encouraged.
- Engagement: They enter hui with mana whenua as people first, professionals second, guided by prompts like “speak as if you’re meeting your best friend’s grandmother” to soften corporate armour and allow whanaungatanga to form.
- Debrief: They debrief immediately after, before other tasks crowd in, capturing what went well, what felt off, and what needs to change so the next interaction honours iwi time and tikanga better.
As a descendant of chiefs who engaged with the Crown “good, bad and ugly”, he grew up acutely aware of both the promise and the pain bound up in partnership. He’s bringing his worldview and lived experience to create a new standard for iwi engagement on our infrastructure projects.
Penny-drop moments and looking ahead for 2026
For Rikona, the proudest moments in his role are the “penny-drop moments” when colleagues truly realise that Māori connections to land are rooted not in aesthetics or nostalgia but in centuries‑old narratives that carry responsibility across generations, and guide decisions today.
The questions he receives have also deepened. Instead of last‑minute requests for a karakia or a translation on a bid that is already locked in, project teams are involving him early, asking “why”, “how” and “when” as they plan their approach.
In 2026, Rikona’s focus is on deepening what has begun. He wants more teams to embed Te Ao Māori perspectives from project inception rather than retrofitting them at the end.
He will prioritise relationship‑building with iwi outside of live project cycles, aiming by year’s end to have strong, enduring relationships with at least two iwi who know AECOM not just from tenders. Those relationships will sit alongside the measurable goals in Mahere Rautaki Māori, but for Rikona, they are the truest test of whether the journey is working.
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