Resilient Places for Indigenous, Local, and Visitor Wellbeing: The Relational Resilient Place Framework

Planning debates increasingly recognise that climate adaptation, community wellbeing, and tourism development cannot be treated as separate domains; yet existing place-based frameworks rarely integrate Indigenous governance, multidimensional wellbeing, and visitor dynamics within a single cohesive model. This article develops the Relational Resilient Place Framework as a conceptual model for understanding how culturally grounded landscapes can balance Indigenous authority, local community interests, and destination pressures. Drawing on mātauranga Māori (Indigenous knowledge) scholarship, therapeutic landscapes research, and the destination governance literature, the framework positions place as relational infrastructure. In this model, ecological vitality (mauri), collective wellbeing, cultural integrity, and visitor engagement are treated as interdependent rather than competing objectives. The framework is structured through six lenses: partnership integrity, cultural safety, community wellbeing, climate transition capacity, visitor–resident alignment, and long-term stewardship. The article establishes a conceptual basis for evaluating the theoretical conditions under which places function as resilient systems across rural, regional, and destination contexts. It argues that Indigenous governance principles provide a structural foundation for aligning wellbeing and tourism without reproducing extractive or growth-centric logics. In doing so, the framework demonstrates how Indigenous ontologies can move beyond symbolic inclusion to underpin resilient, non-extractive approaches to place-based planning.