Reflecting on Community Strategising about Psychedelic Therapy in Aotearoa

It is an exciting time for psychedelic healing in Aotearoa New Zealand, with the first clinic for psilocybin-assisted therapy opening its doors in May 2025 and a first round of government guidance on how to apply to set up psychedelic clinics released in July 2025. There is also a growing call for Māori to be able to access endemic psychedelic mushrooms outside of controlled substances legislation.

This presentation will overview the project, ‘Community Strategising about Psychedelic Therapy in Aotearoa’. Since February 2024, this philanthropically-funded project has brought together grassroots communities across Aotearoa New Zealand, to explore the question of what psychedelic therapy in the country could and should look like. It was developed in a Tiriti o Waitangi | Treaty of Waitangi-aligned partnership model, combining Indigenous and non-Indigenous leadership. Alongside community-based meetings, a milestone of the project was to host the first national discussion on psychedelic therapy, held at Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland in March 2025. These gatherings have led to several onward project activities that are shaping the psychedelic landscape of Aotearoa.

After sharing about our community strategising work, we will reflect on the possibilities of doing community engagement in the psychedelics space. In particular, we will share lessons learned around Indigenous-non-Indigenous collaboration, through an introduction to the ‘braided rivers’ model proposed by Māori scholar Angus Macfarlane and others. We will also share some challenges that arose – and we imagine will continue to arise – in psychedelic research and practice at the intersections of Indigenous and Western knowledge systems.