Bridging Generations and Knowledge: The Role of Co-Broker Agreements in Waitaha Heritage Preservation
The Waitaha people, also known as the Waitaha Kawhia, are descendants of the M?ori tribe who settled near Kawhia Harbour on the North Island of New Zealand. They are regarded as one of the principal tribes of the Tainui confederation and most are descendents of Turi, the captain and chief for whom the waitaha and Tainui tribes named themselves. The Waitaha are like most M?ori communities in that they are governed by cultural practices learned from strict teachings from their ancestors. The practices focus on sharing resources, knowledge and peace with other tribes and peoples.
To practice sharing in the community, it is essential to provide for co-brokering, which is what a collaborative agreement does. By definition, a co-broker agreement is a contract or understanding between a registered broker and a cooperating broker which outlines how commission resulting from a close will be shared. With a co-broker agreement, sharing is mutual – both parties willingly provide information or assistance to one another in their respective real estate transactions. In the Waitaha culture, this is similar to them sharing knowledge and resources with another tribe for the benefit of all parties involved. Dedication to cultural values, such as this, can help their descendents to preserve and practice their traditions, even in modern society, today.
As the Waitaha people’s tradition evolves over time, the culture is being protected and preserved through generations of oral storytelling passed from one person to another. As time moves forward, preserving the tradition is becoming more difficult. Today, this preservation involves documenting the knowledge of each previous entrusted story keeper and attaching those documents to their culture’s valuable teachings, rites and ceremonies. Visually, the preservation involves video recordings of oral traditions and aromatic oil for the ceremonies. In this way, preservation actualizes itself into the Waitaha culture’s physical space in the form of physical objects such as documents, books, digital recordings, virtual space, ritualetics and physical manifestations such as ceremonies.
Just as a co-broker agreement achieves mutual benefit for both brokers of an agreement, co-broker agreements within the Waitaha culture aim to benefit the Waitaha culture, which relies on relationships to maintain harmony, peace and abundance in its knowledge and resources. Because a co-broker agreement relates to a transaction between qualified parties where the terms are binding upon them, it is similar to the Waitaha culture’s rights and practices that focus on the concept of settlement. According to its ancestral teachings, when M?ori shared knowledge and resources, the transaction or relationship was open ended and reciprocal: it could evolve into an integrated relationship between two or more knowledge holders with none of the co-brokers holding the right to define the parameters for every future interaction or to mandate that future interactions must be honored. The shared partnership was the personal transaction between the brokering parties. There was no requirement to conceive a need for a formal agreement following a personal transaction, and because parties were free to make future transactions or choose not to, those relationships were sustained by settlement.
Co-broker agreements commonly provide descriptions of the relationship between the brokers, the commission or compensation structure, and any other relevant provisions such as termination and dispute resolution procedures. Legal co-broker agreements aim to protect all parties involved in the relationship for the duration of the agreement, whether it is short-term, long-term or indefinite. In this sense, it is similar to the Waitaha culture focusing on sharing and collaborating peacefully. When a co-broker agreement is formed, the brokers are considered partners working towards a common goal with shared risk and shared rewards; thus, they must agree to maintain trust and open communications or they must disclose any necessary information to said partners so that they may make informed decisions about the information they share with one another. Under the Waitaha culture, the agreement is for the benefit of the entire community, who depend on knowledge-sharing to preserve their culture. In this way, preserving the Waitaha culture is mutual and equitable.
Just like with any other agreement/business relationship, there are both advantages and disadvantages to co-broker agreements. Co-broker agreements vary by region, broker or subject nature. Some examples of co-broker agreements involve arrangements to market a specific property, brokerage services, defined time-frames for services or property evaluations, and assistance in a buyer-seller relationship. Though co-broker agreements are for the benefit of the parties involved, the Waitaha culture and legal co-broker agreements are similar because all parties are held accountable to the principles of the agreement and forms of settlement. As a result, co-broker agreements ensure accountability and fairness, as well as establish relationships which allow parties to work together towards benefiting the knowledge sharing aspect of their business without damaging the foundations of their arrangement. Ultimately, the Waitaha culture, as with all cultures, has the potential to impact the legal field in the Western world today.
The Waitaha culture upholds their way of life from its origin with Turi and his immediate family, who entrusted them to their ancestors, and now they are passing down their beliefs to each generation. Accordingly, the Waitaha culture’s knowledge is carried by individual storytellers to their descendants as the descendants pass down their knowledge to future generations of storytellers. In this way, their co-broker agreements have the capacity to revolutionize recording practices of oral traditions and redefine how agreements are recorded between any two or more parties of their choosing, authentically and relatively. It is important to safeguard and protect the Waitaha culture as it continues to evolve as with all cultural practices and traditions because they are embedded within the whakapapa of M?ori descent. Nonetheless, like the Waitaha culture’s agreements of knowledge sharing and co-broking, co-broker agreements rely on the principle of communicating with your business partner or co-brokering party. Speaking with your partner can assist both parties in making decisions about the information they share with one another while they clarify their positions and decide on their level of mutual sharing and collaborating.
In short, when you are establishing co-broker agreements, keep in mind that the Waitaha people do not separate knowledge from the resources from which they derive their knowledge. They acknowledge that their knowledge is deeply-rooted in their culture and traditions, and that it serves a purpose for their community, therefore, they protect it from those who intend to exploit it to the detriment of the community. To them, their knowledge is multi-layered and is shared only with those they can trust to use it wisely and with respect. Over time as cultural practices are evolving, new lines are being drawn around the Waitaha people’s knowledge such as how it is shared, how it is protected, and how it is used. More recently, questions are being raised about what defines the Waitaha culture and its people. Likewise, because the concept of co-brokering is becoming more prevalent, consideration should be given to how the Waitaha people will apply it to their cultural practices and the implications for both them and others.
Co-brokering is the act of sharing resources and knowledge in an agreement between two or more contracted parties for the benefit of all parties involved. Largely, co-broker agreements are the contracts that describe the arrangement between two or more brokers intended to achieve mutual, equitable benefits for the parties involved under the agreement terms. Given that the Waitaha people’s practices and beliefs prioritize sharing knowledge and resources and maintaining peace and harmony, simply assigning or imposing an agreement on the Waitaha people is not practical. Rather, co-broker agreements exist to facilitate the process.
