Prof. Chellie Spiller
Ngāti Kahungunu
Getting our bearings in a moving world
Where I come from
Nau mai, haere mai
I come from a long line of voyagers, knowledge holders and people who found their way through changing worlds.
My ancestor Tahu Pōtiki travelled on the Tākitimu waka and later settled at Iwitea, near Wairoa with Hamō-te-rangi. That whakapapa matters to me because it is not simply a story of where I come from. It shapes how I understand leadership, relationship, place, responsibility and the work we leave for those who follow.
I am a leadership scholar, writer and facilitator. My work moves between research, writing and conversations with organisations and communities.
Across it runs a continuing question: how do we find our way through uncertainty, act wisely within relationship, and contribute to futures that are more just, regenerative and alive?
How I work
My work is grounded in relationship.
Aroha is the foundation of my work. I hold it as a reminder of focus, inner work, reciprocity and the creation of abundance.
Manaakitanga calls me to uphold the mana of others.
Whanaungatanga reminds me that leadership is always relational, shaped by connection, belonging, history and shared experience.
Kaitiakitanga asks what I am responsible for protecting, sustaining and passing forward.
These are not values merely for display. They are practices I try to live by.
The Catalyst’s Way
What does it mean to become a catalyst for change?
The Catalyst’s Way grew from my time as Leader-in-Residence at the Atlantic Institute at Oxford and from the lived experiences of fifteen Foundational Storytellers from around the world.
It explores activated hope, discomfort, dis-covery, healing, storytelling, praxis, collaboration, mobilisation and succession — not as a linear method, but as a spiral of reflection and action.
TedX talk by Chellie Spiller on Wayfinding Leadership. Features a video by Hoturoa Barclay Kerr
Wayfinding Leadership
Wayfinding Leadership draws on the ancient wisdom of traditional Polynesian navigation to explore leadership in conditions of uncertainty and change.
It asks us to attend closely: to people, relationships, environment, emerging signs and the possibilities that cannot yet be fully seen.
Developed with Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr and John Panoho, the work brings Indigenous knowledge into conversation with contemporary leadership practice.
Ways we can work together
Keynotes and conversations
Wānanga and workshops
