Abstract
This article presents a professional development programme which brought an indigenous minority group of tertiary staff together. We describe a peer-mentoring model, piloted in 2009 at The University of Auckland, New Zealand with university staff in order to promote staff advancement. The participants were all Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. The strengths of the model were: it gave Maori staff a rare opportunity to work with other Maori in a context where their culture was the norm with regards to language, spirituality, humour, and whakawhanaungatanga (togetherness); it mediated the effects of isolation that Maori staff often feel when working in large institutions; and, provided affirmation of Maori in a large institutional environment. This case study suggests that the model of staff development would be applicable to other indigenous minority groups, by adopting a similar approach and adapting the model to the specific cultural practices of the group.