Ph 07 307 0760 ext 229
tiaki@ngatiawa.iwi.nz
When asked to tell us something about himself Tiaki responds “well there’s really nothing to tell. I’m just a boy from Te Teko”. Well this boy from Te Teko is now managing the commercial entity responsible for growing our, Ngāti Awa’s, assets.
In trying to understand what NAGHL (Ngäti Awa Group Holdings Limited) do, I ask Tiaki a series of questions:
We know Ngäti Awa signed a Settlement package in 2005 and the value of that was around $40 million, how does your job relate to that? “NAGHL is responsible for growing the asset base of Ngäti Awa. Its primary goal is to ensure the value of the settlement (at signing) grows inline with inflation and population growth and allows the Runanga to assist in the development of our Iwi”.
How do you do that? To achieve that we have a range of assets within the primary sector, commercial properties, equity investments and cash. Some of these assets include:-
Is everything you do within our rohe (iwi boundary)? We focus on this area, 2 years ago we purchased a dairy farm in partnership with 5 local land trusts which was a significant achievement for Ngati Awa whanui. However we also have investments outside the area and are keen on collaborating with other iwi. We have been doing so with other Mataatua iwi for some time, but more recently have broadened our relationships to extend outside of Mataatua in terms of our fisheries and forestry aspirations.
Who are the people involved in making the decisions in NAGHL? We’re actually a very small team, there’s myself and our Chief Financial Officer who works half for NAGHL and half for the Runanga. We make up the staff, the whole 1.5 of us. We have a small group of trusted advisors who we work closely with, our farm advisor has been with us for about 15 years and our lawyer has been with us for over 20, we place a lot of emphasis on the quality of our working relationships. Because of the nature of our business it’s imperative that we seek dependable legal advice on our commercial transactions. We have a very capable board of six directors led by Wira (Sir Harawira Gardiner) who is the Chair. It’s also important to acknowledge the foundation which was set by our establishment CEO Paul Quinn whose now a member of Parliament, so all in all we’ve had a pretty consistent leadership group.
What are some of things that NAGHL have been involved in that our people might be familiar with? There are actually a lot of things where we, NAGHL, are just in the background; last year we were one of the sponsors of the Awanuiarangi Live the Journey Charity Ball held to fundraise for Child Cancer and the Eastern Bay of Plenty Hospice, we contributed to the relief fund to help when the tsunami hit Samoa in September we support Sun FM and we support local business development through Toi-EDA (Economic Development Agency, Eastern Bay of Plenty).
And finally, how did you end up working at the Rünanga? Tiaki says that working at the Rünanga and for my iwi was something I always wanted to do. Those who knew my father will understand what I mean. He was a servant of his hapu Pahipoto and Ngati Awa and was our hapu representative for nearly 20 years, so like most kids you always want to try and emulate what your parents do and hope that you can be half as good as them.. In that sense I’ve been grateful and lucky to have such supportive parents and wider whanau, although my dad’s gone, my Mum Priscilla, keeps me grounded (hopefully). I think I’m very lucky with my role here and I look forward to coming to work every day. To work for your iwi is a privilege and I remind myself of that constantly. I have a fantastic wife who understands what that means and the commitment I’ve made to my iwi. She, Rangimarie (who hails from Ngäti Whatua) has never batted an eyelid when the iwi has called on me to travel away from home. She’s been a strength to me, her and our four wonderful tamariki; Hariruia, Atakura, Tahinga o te Ra and Mairangi.