Marae-opoly: supporting localised Maori climate adaptation decisions with serious games in Aotearoa New Zealand

Far from being passive and/or static victims of climate change, indigenous peoples are hybridizing knowledge systems, and challenging and negotiating new environmental and social realities to develop their own adaptation options within their own registers of what is place and culture appropriate. Our paper seeks to demonstrate how we, as guests on Maori land, were able to develop a partnership with a Maori community facing difficult adaptation decisions regarding climate change hazards through the pragmatic navigation of multi-disciplinary research and practice. In particular, we co-developed and tested the potential of a serious game (Marae-opoly) approach as a platform which assembles cross-cultural climate change knowledge to learn, safely experiment and inform adaptation decisions. Marae-opoly was developed bespoke to its intended context-to support the creation of mutually agreeable dynamic adaptive policy pathways (DAPP) for localized flood adaptation. Game material was generated by drawing together detailed local knowledge (i.e. hydrology, climate data, matauranga hapu) and situated adaptation options and accurate contextual data to create a credible gaming experience for the hapu of Tangoio Marae. We argue that the in-situ co-development process used to co-create Marae-opoly was fundamental in its success in achieving outcomes for the hapu. It also provided important lessons for the research team regarding how to enter as respectful guests and work together effectively to provide a resource to support our partners' adaptation decisions. The paper discusses the steps taken to establish research partnerships and develop the serious game and its subsequent playing, albeit we do not evaluate our indigenous research partners' adaptation decisions. Our contribution with this paper is in sharing an approach which cultivated the ground to enter as respectful guests and work together effectively to provide a resource for our partners' adaptation decisions.