This paper aims to examine how Indigenous heritage values are represented within western urban environments. By using an urban design lens, this paper builds on an emerging body of knowledge by analysing existing designed heritage landscapes in an attempt to recognize the contrasts between western and indigenous heritage values.

Through the study of a selection of Indigenous landscape precedents from America, Canada and South Africa, common representational trends of heritage design are understood. These examples illustrate some of the issues that arise when landscapes of indigenous significance are presented within a western heritage framework. As the world’s urban environments change in the face of rapid population growth, issues involving the interpretation and representation of Indigenous values will become more frequent.

The second section of this paper relates the common trends of heritage representation to New Zealand’s current heritage position. The documents, Tapuwae and Te Aranga: Māori Cultural Landscape Strategy are introduced as guides to Māori intangible heritage. These guides are discussed in relation to the New Zealand urban design discourse. Contemporary outcomes of this current heritage climate, Waitangi Park and Te Aro pa Visitors Centre, are discussed and found to be two examples of a progressive approach to Indigenous heritage design within Wellington’s challenging urban environment.