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IndigeSafe for worker centric indigenous health & safety

IndigeSafe is an international provider of worker centric indigenous health and safety research and practice. Specialising in connecting the cautious and wellbeing values of Māori culture with health and safety practices.  

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About IndigeSafe

I established IndigeSafe in 2022 after ten years of health and safety regulation, private practice, and research experience. As a result of working in a multitude of settings, Vance developed a niche expertise for identifying Māori cultural intelligence, aligning it with conventional practice, and imparting it in a way that is practical and understood by businesses, agencies, educators and health and safety professionals.

This has been refined as a doctoral study that forms the intellectual property owned by IndigeSafe. Evidence now shows Māori and other at-risk workers that connect their culture are placed to understand, communicate, and make better health and safety decisions.

Understanding worker and practitioner needs remains central to the know-how of IndigeSafe. Conversations with practitioners and workplace visits help to achieve this insight. IndigeSafe is engaged by a growing number of clients and occasionally works pro bono work to enhance an understanding of how to connect Māori culture with workplace health and safety to improve worker wellbeing. This now includes the use of micro credentials to provide an explanation of how Māori culture contains a tradition of perceiving and managing risk that is relevant today. 

I love to work with and learn from Vance! He is someone who is amazing at engaging with workers and really understanding the risks from their points of view. He works diligently to understand the critical risks of a business and ensure they are managed for those on the frontline. He has over time built a suite of tools to improve worker wellbeing by connecting Maori culture with environmental health and safety systems and practice.

Gareth Beck. 2020 Emerging Practitioner of the Year

For any business wanting to enhance connection with their Maori workforce, Vance's work on improving worker wellbeing by connecting Māori culture, with environmental, health, and safety systems and practice is extremely valuable. At Site Safe we are working with Vance and others to ensure that we achieve the best possible training and engagement outcomes for Maori workers by focusing on the importance of culture in learning, and in turn creating leaders in the H&S space. Vance's approach is both realistic and based strongly on applied research, working with Maori workers on the front line of our high risk industries.

Brett Murray. Chief Executive at Site Safe New Zealand Inc

Vance is an outstanding contributor to the academic body of knowledge and the use of practical applications of Māori Tikanga into a workplace health and safety context. He uses curiosity to better understand how Māori workers use cultural norms to think about doing good work safely and has the mana to guide organisations to better understand how to integrate these concepts into their organisations.

Greg Dearsly. President at International Network of Safety and Health Professional Organisations

Vance has a significant track record in this area. Kia ora mo tenei mahi rangatira!

Kathie Irwin MNZM, PHD, MInstD

Vance has a real focus on worker health and safety by connecting traditional health and safety systems to Te Ao Maori concepts and helping bridge the gap.

Carey Griffiths. Manager Regulatory Practice at WorkSafe New Zealand

Vance improves worker wellbeing by connecting Māori culture, with environmental, health, and safety systems and practice.

Robyn Bennett. President, New Zealand Institute of Safety Management