Ruby Red Development at Ngakauroa

Ruby Red Development at Ngakauroa


Me upoko pakaru tātau te iwi o Ngāti Awa mō te whenua te take, kai kīia tātau he iwi manawa kiore!

We, Ngāti Awa, must persevere for our land, lest our nation is said to have the heart of a rat!

A desire to ensure whenua collectively owned by Ngāti Awa, through Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa and its subsidiaries, is being used in the most effective way has prompted the development of a Ruby Red Kiwifruit orchard at a farm near Te Teko.

In 2022, following a feasibility and detailed assessment, the owners of Ngakauroa Dairy Farm agreed to convert 10 hectares into a Ruby Red Kiwifruit orchard. Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa, through its Ngāti Awa Farms Limited company, owns the farm with partners Ihukatia Trust, Moerangi Kereua Ratahi Trust and Kiwinui Trust. Feasibility work was funded by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise through its Strategic Investment Fund.

The orchard comprises of two internal blocks on the farm, which have been called Te Waiwhero and Te Wai-o-Koroahu based on ancient names of nearby sites.

Tracey Hook, Chief Executive of Ngāti Awa Group Holdings Limited, which manages Ngāti Awa Farm Limited, said following a tender process Southern Cross Horticulture was selected to undertake the development.

“The industry expertise across our orchard board, and within Southern Cross Horticulture means that we are well placed to mitigate any risk.  Furthermore, this development will add value to the existing land and is expected to provide higher returns than dairy.”

In 2022, kiwifruit industry licensing body, Zespri, allowed for a maximum of 10ha bid for the orchard development and the licence was granted in April of that year.

Construction on the orchard commenced with a karakia and turning of the first sod on June 20, 2022. The first plants were established at the site on December 19, 2022, and the milestone was celebrated by hapū representatives, members of the Rūnanga board, NAGHL, kaimahi and partners.

Ms Hook said construction of the orchard was almost complete with the development of a pond that would be completed in May, 2023.

Meet Monica – A Ngāti Awa Faithful

Meet Monica – A Ngāti Awa Faithful

“I’m a faithful worker, it’s called being loyal!”

Ten years in the Māori Affairs Department, 19.5 years at the Whakatāne District Council and 17 years and counting at Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa, as well as nine years out “in the garden” being a Māmā to her babies, Monica Maniapoto is more than a faithful worker.

A loyal uri of Ngati Awa, Monica says she was born in raised in Te Teko and that this has always been her tūrangawaewae, particularly within Ngāi Tamaoki.

“In fact, I was born in Mapou, not quite at the pā but almost, on the bank of the Rangitaiki. The house I was born in belong to Mihiwai Powell.”

Monica says while she is a proud Ngāti Awa with affiliations to the Rangitaiki hapū, Ngāi Tamapare and Ngāti Pūkeko, but her heart belongs with Ngai Tamaoki and Ruaihona.

She says she attended Edgecumbe College and from there, she left Te Teko in 1968 when she was chosen as one of four young ladies from across the motu, to attend a secretarial course through the Māori Affairs Department.

“Each year, Māori Affairs chosen four young ladies to attend Gilby’s Business College to train as a Secretary. The course content was Shorthand (Pitman’s), Typewriting and English. At the end of the year, we sat exams, and we were given the choice to stay with the Māori and Island Affairs (MIA) Department (by then) or work in other Government Departments. I chose to stay at MIA. During the training, we were housed at the Head Office of MIA and I was there until October 1971, then I asked to be transferred to the Rotorua District Office of the MIA, to be closer to my mum (or home).

I had four children in Rotorua but still kept working until my big kids started school, then I thought I had better be a mum. It was easy to take maternity leave then up to six months.

My hubby started working in Tasman Paper & Pulp mill in December 1980. He lived with my mum in Te Teko, so I thought, YAY, I’m gonna move home, so in March 1981, me and the tamariki moved back to civilisation (Te Teko)!”

While bringing up her tamariki, Monica worked in her uncle’s market gardens (the Kamokamo King) and went asparagus picking for about nine years.

“After a while, I got hōhā with working in the gardens and my tamariki were all at kura. In 1986, I went to upgrade my skills at Waiariki Polytech, when it was at the corner of Domain and Francis Street. I was attending nightschool for speed shorthand and typing, then a New Horizons course began at the Polytech.”

“They had more or less stopped using typewriters by then and were starting to use computers like Displaywriters.”

As part of the course, Monica undertook work experience at the Whakatāne District Council and within six weeks she had secured a fulltime job as a Wordprocessor Operator. In 1989, she was promoted to Senior Work Processor Operator and was in charge of the Word Processing section.

Monica worked at the Council for 19.5 years and was made redundant in October 2005.  After a four month break, she was headhunted and received a call from a total stranger (to her) asking if she would like to come into the Rūnanga office to have an interview.  Monica joined Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa in April 2006, following the formalisation of the tribe’s settlement through the adoption of the Ngāti Awa Settlement Act.

Monica, or Aunty Mon as she is known to many of the iwi, started with Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa as an administrator in the then Environmental Ngāti Awa (ENA) which laid on the foundations to eventually become the Taiao Department. At that time, Beverley Hughes – who is now the Group Manager – Strategy and Policy – was the Manager ENA.

“My first role was to help set up the department. Bev came from Regional Council, and I came from the District Council, so it was easy to set up systems that we both understood. We were the first department that had a filing system (electronic and paper).”

At that time the Rūnanga was using the T:drive system, which eventually migrated into the H:drive that is still in place today for some people. New systems like “the Cloud”have been created including Teams, but Monica says that is the place of technology within Te Ao Hurihuri.

Now days she is the Tribal Register Officer for the Rūnanga. Her role is crucial to ensuring we know who our uri are and they know who we are.

When someone registers to be a member of Ngāti Awa, it is Monica’s job to process and ensure that the applicants have whakapapa links to the iwi. She then passes on the information to the Whakapapa Committee, and they confirm or decline the registration.

Supreme Court keeps the door open for Ngāti Awa challenge against Chinese water bottling giant

Supreme Court keeps the door open for Ngāti Awa challenge against Chinese water bottling giant


In a landmark initial judgment, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear Ngāti Awa’s appeal challenging proposal by Creswell New Zealand Limited (Creswell), a subsidiary of Chinese soft drinks giant Nongfu Spring, to extract 1.1 billion litres of water annually from the Awaiti Canal Aquifer in Otakiri, largely for export to Asia.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa, the post settlement governance entity for Ngāti Awa, hailed the recent decision as a positive step in the right direction to ensure that the iwi concerns about this proposal are heard by the highest Court in the land.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa Chief Executive Reuben Araroa said: “Ngati Awa are delighted that the Supreme Court has granted to us leave to appeal. This provides us with a clear path to challenge all matters we are concerned with to the Supreme Court and marks significant progress for Te Runanga o Ngati Awa who have been fighting this unjust proposal to bottle and export our most precious wai.

Ngāti Awa have been involved in a long legal battle to oppose the Creswell proposal to take and export in plastic bottles the pristine spring water from Otakiri saying that it would have irrevocable and negative effects on te mauri o te wai – the spiritual life force of the water.

The Creswell proposal also included plans to develop a manufacturing plant on site in Otakiri with the capacity to produce 1,800 single use plastic bottles per minute. The expansion of the site and the creation of millions of single use plastic bottles was opposed by community and environmental groups concerned about the impact on the environment and an inability to manage the end-use of the plastic bottles which would largely have been exported.

Mr Araroa said Ngāti Awa, as kaitiaki of this rohe, has an obligation to ensure our water and what happens to it align with our cultural and environmental values.

“I believe most New Zealanders agree with this stance given the very present and clear impacts of climate change. This is about representing and protecting the long-term future prosperity of our people and our communities.”

The Court will likely hear the appeals in full towards the end of 2023.

Whakatāne Kiwi Population Continues to Thrive

Whakatāne Kiwi Population Continues to Thrive


Last week, in a small grove on White Horse Drive in Whakatāne a contingent of environmental protectors gathered to release a new kiwi into the wild.

At the release, the name of the kiwi was also revealed as Tātea – a derivative of Kaitātea, which is the name of the time of the year that she was born in according to the Ngāti Awa maramataka.

Tātea is a progeny of the prodigious male kiwi, Whiuwhiu, and was found as an egg near the side of a road near Kohi Point Reserve. The egg was uplifted on December 19 and taken to the National Kiwi Hatchery in Rotorua.

On January 2, the egg hatched and after four months Tātea, at just a smidge under the crucial 1000-gram mark, was returned to her tūrangawaewae in the Mokorua Scenic Reserve last Wednesday.

Kiwi have been released back into the Whakatāne area for more than two decades. In 1999, eight North Island brown kiwi were unexpectedly found in the Ōhope Scenic Reserve. These eight birds were the last of the population in Whakatāne with predators killing most chicks before they could reach adulthood.

The discovery of these kiwi prompted the development of the Whakatāne Kiwi Project, a partnership between the Bay of Plenty Regional Council (then Environment Bay of Plenty) and the Department of Conservation, in conjunction with Te Runanga o Ngāti Awa. Since then, the Whakatāne Kiwi Trust and the Whakatāne District Council have also become partners in the project.

The Whakatāne Kiwi Project is dedicated to the serious effort required to re-establish a thriving kiwi population. That dedication has seen kiwi in the Whakatāne area go from the original eight birds to now over 300 with manu in all three major reserves around town including Ōhope, Mokorua, and Kōhi Point scenic. The birds have also been established on pest-free Moutohorā.

Nowadays, kiwi literally live in the backyards of Whakatāne and Ōhope. Residents and visitors to the area have the unique opportunity to walk into the bush and step into kiwi territory. It is this exceptional set of circumstances that has led to Whakatāne gaining the tile of ‘Kiwi Capital of the World’.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa Manahautū Reuben Araroa said one of the many rewards that flows from the Whakatāne Kiwi Project was improvement of the local biodiversity as a whole and the iwi was committed to continuing its support for this mahi.

“For Ngāti Awa, our kiwi population restoration is one of the best measures of how our local eco-systems are functioning in synergy with our regional pest eradication programs. So, we are very pleased to see the Kiwi, a taonga (treasure) to Māori, culturally and spiritually, thrive is such economic and environmentally challenging times. 

“We also acknowledge the sponsors and especially the volunteers of the Whakatāne Kiwi Trust who contribute well over 200 days of their time each year to ensure our kiwi taonga thrive. The Iwi is grateful for their continued commitment.” 

Whakatāne Kiwi Trust Chair, Wayne O’Keefe said he was grateful of the support from Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa and its large-scale pest eradication project, Korehāhā Whakahau, at the release. “With the mood being set with karakia and waiata, it was a very special morning. Kiwi Trust volunteers and contractors work tirelessly to ensure these taonga have the best possible chance to thrive, and we are always humbled to play our part in this amazing project. Thanks also to all project partners, and especially to mana whenua for providing such a meaningful name.”

Community Focus for Whakatāne Anzac Day

Community Focus for Whakatāne Anzac Day


Two buses will be on hand to take people to a community breakfast at Te Whare o Toroa Marae following the Anzac Dawn Service at Pōhaturoa next Tuesday (25 April 2023).

The 40-seater buses will also be available to transport people from the marae, following breakfast, to the Whakatāne War Memorial Hall for the Whakatāne District civic ceremony.

Anzac Dawn Service in Whakatāne will take place at Pōhaturoa on Tuesday and the community is invited to gather before 5.30am. The Navy, through HMNZS Matataua, will march with service academy members, former soldiers, and their families to Pōhaturoa during the service. Children from Apanui Primary School’s whānau unit, Te Whānau o Awetope, will sit at the memorial for Te Hurinui Apanui in acknowledgement of Ngāti Awa and their ancestor.

Whakatāne RSA President Victor Hape said the buses would be parked at Wharaurangi to transport people from The Strand to the marae following the dawn service.

“It is a community breakfast and, therefore, everyone is invited to Te Whare o Toroa Marae. We gather at the waharoa to be called on to the marae with a karanga. However, rather than going into the Wairaka Wharenui, we will go straight into the wharekai, or dining room, for a mihi before we share a meal together and undertake the other formalities such as roll call.

“Following breakfast, the two buses will be on hand again to transport those who wish to attend the Civic Commemoration at the Whakatāne War Memorial Hall at Rex Morpeth Park. Doors open there from 9.15am, with the service starting at 10am. Once the Civic Service is completed, the buses will be available to transport people from the Whakatāne War Memorial Centre to the Whakatāne RSA, where everyone is welcome to join the entertainment, including a community lunch.”

During this time, members of HMNZS Matataua will attend the Whakatāne Riding for Disabled to support the charity organisation. HMNZS Matataua will also be involved in a golf tournament with Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa on Monday, April 24.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa Manahautū Reuben Araroa said he was grateful to be able to partner other organisations to honour the shared history.

“It’s great to see the 100-year commemoration coming together and being appropriately supported by the Whakatāne RSA, Whakatāne District Council and New Zealand Defence Force officials leading up to the event. Pōhaturoa is a cultural taonga for Ngāti Awa so it’s important, from an iwi perspective, the significance of this is considered during the planning and delivery of the commemoration. 

“I also acknowledge Te Whare o Toroa Marae committee for making the necessary adaptations given their long history of hosting ANZAC day from the opening of every dawn service on their marae. Their continued support and leadership for the commemoration was essential for maintaining the involvement of cultural values that are important to our Māori service personnel past and present.

Whakatāne District Mayor Dr Victor Luca said he encouraged people to make an extra effort to be involved in the ANZAC commemorations. 

“While always a very important day in the calendar, ANZAC Day 2023 in our district is even more significant given we are marking the centenary of the first dawn service, at Pōhaturoa. The collaboration between Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa, the RSA and Council has seen the introduction of the public transport between venues, so it’s never been easier for the community to attend both dawn and Civic commemorations.

Pōhaturoa Rock, Whakatāne

Pākihi – RIR Advanced: Ngāti Awa Doing it for Ourselves

Pakihi Stories: RIR Advanced


Pākihi – RIR Advanced: Ngāti Awa Doing it for Ourselves

“We can do it for ourselves!”

It is this belief that has driven Rachel Field to start a new job, create a business and launch a training programme for Ministry of Social Development in just over six months.

A mother of two, who affiliates to Ngāti Hāmua and Te Pahipoto, Rachel established RIR Advancement to support those who are wanting to gain employment by providing training for workplace skills.

Rachel spent more than a decade at the Department of Corrections where she started as an administrator, moved into supporting the development of life skills before finally working to assist people with their employment goals.

She said she enjoyed helping people to build better futures.

“I worked for Corrections for 13 years and my last role was employment and training. I did that in Eastern Bay during my final six years at Corrections.

“I went through a whole lot of different roles during my 13 years at Corrections starting as an administrator, before becoming a Work and Living Skills coordinator where provided support, including finding courses for our people to do such as parenting, anger management and suicide prevent. After that, I moved into employment training and the contribution that made within the Eastern Bay.

“I really loved that space but it was just time for a change.”

Rachel said she started a new role at TOI EDA as a contractor but had already put the wheels of a new business idea into motion. 

“Currently I am working at Toi EDA as a contractor. I started in February undertaking a 20-hour a week contract in the workforce development portfolio. I’ve learnt so much in the space and value the guidance of Toi EDA Chief Executive Donna Perese.

“Just before leaving Corrections, I started going through the process with Ministry of Social Development because I noticed they needed more suppliers to support people into employment.”

Rachel said she noticed many of those who were operating in the employment training space in the Eastern Bay were large companies from outside the rohe.

“I looked at some of the large companies that come and deliver these contracts and often they get Māori trainers just to get to them in the door. So, I thought why can’t we do it for ourselves?

“I have solid relationships, especially with trainers in the area, and I thought I could use them to support what I wanted to do because they are local. While they are not Māori, they are local, and the eventual goal is to have our own providing these services.

“I want to be local driven with our own local providers.”

After inquiring with the Ministry for Social Development about the opportunity, it was a quick turnaround for Rachel and her new business – RIR Advanced. She rung the ministry in October 2022, had a Zoom with them later in the year and by January they were telling her she could have the contract if she could complete the requirements by the end of the financial year.

Rachel said she was down for the challenge and worked to get her first intake of tauira. She launched the intake in March with a pōhiri at Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa and commenced the first four-month training programme.

Along with providing training for tauira to gain their wheels, tracks and rollers as well as forklift, class 2 and class 4 licences plus Site Safe accreditation, RIR Advanced also supported tauira with resume writing, interview tactics and other soft skills.

Rachel said following intakes would be offered later in the year. Anyone who wants to join an intake must have a full drivers’ licence and be able to commit the required time to complete the program. However, in return, Rachel said she was committed to finding tauira employment and a career pathway by the end of the period.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa Manahautū Reuben Araroa said supporting the capability uplift of Ngāti Awa owned businesses supported by our Te Ara Mahi team created a strategic triad social benefit.

“Te Ara Mahi is a Rūnanga-led Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment funded project, which also aimed at supporting Ngāti Awa whanau to find employment. However, most of our employment placements are with mainstream businesses owned predominantly by non-Māori. The triad benefit referred to is when we can find tauira employment within a Ngāti Awa business that would then strengthen our economic capabilities as an iwi collective longer term.

“I have a strong view that Whakatāne is the next biggest opportunity for commercial development over the next 10 to 20 years. This is signalled by the level of financial interest and investment across the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Therefore, now is the time to start preparing our people for those opportunities not only to gain employment but to encourage and support business ownership and entrepreneurialism.”

100 Years on and ANZAC Back at Pōhaturoa

100 Years on and ANZAC Back at Pōhaturoa


Whakatāne RSA, Whakatāne District Council and Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa are working together to turn back time for ANZAC Day this year.

One hundred years ago, Whakatāne held its first ANZAC commemorations at Pōhaturoa in the town’s central business district and this year the plan is to do same and pay homage to that part of the civic history.

Whakatāne RSA President Victor Hape said this year’s Dawn Service would be held at Pōhaturoa, however Te Whare o Toroa Marae in Wairaka would still host breakfast afterwards.

“The first records at the RSA show that we held a community ANZAC Day service in 1923 at Pōhaturoa Rock. Back in 1923 they used to have it at about 2pm. Over the years, the dawn service commemorations have moved between Pōhaturoa, to the Heads, where the wreaths were floated out into the sea, and then eventually it moved to Te Whare o Toroa Marae where it has been ever since.”

“The Dawn Service will return to Te Whare o Toroa Marae next year but when I realized that our records showed that the first one was at Pōhaturoa in 1923, we thought we needed to do something special to mark the anniversary.”

Mr Hape brought representatives from Ngāti Awa and the District Council together to help pull off the plan.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa Chief Executive Reuben Araroa said Ngāti Awa had always supported ANZAC commemorations in Whakatāne and in other townships across the district.

“Our support is to recognise the service and sacrifices that many of our Ngāti Awa service people undertook during our past and present. More importantly the commemoration provides the opportunity for iwi to come together in a different way to reflect on such matters related to iwi whether we had served or not.

“It’s equally important our future generations recognise the importance of remembering our Iwi members who served and gave their lives for the future wellbeing of Aotearoa New Zealand.”

Whakatāne District Mayor Dr Victor Luca said the council was pleased to support the services at Pōhaturoa.

“I’ve attended the dawn service at Wairaka in previous years and appreciate Ngāti Hokopū and Ngāti Awa welcoming the wider community. It’s great to see so many families and young people turning out to honour those who served. I think this year’s dawn service at Pōhataroa will be very special.”

The community is asked to gather near Pōhaturoa before 5.30am with formalities to start shortly after that time, beginning with a small mihi from Ngāti Awa.

A full Dawn Service will follow including the flying of the National flags of New Zealand, Australia and Turkey, the readings of the ode and laying of the wreathes.

ANZAC breakfast, with the traditional roll call, will be held at Te Whare o Toroa Marae on Muriwai Drive following the service and buses will be available for transport.

Whakatāne District Council will also hold its traditional Civic ANZAC Day Memorial Service at the Whakatāne War Memorial Hall later in the morning.

Pōhaturoa Rock

Events focus for Te Manuka Tūtahi Marae, Not Tourism

Events focus for Te Manuka Tūtahi Marae, Not Tourism


A house built fit for Royalty or more specifically a queen, the Mataatua Wharenui will become the home for events of significance rather than focusing on a tourism visitors experience at Te Manuka Tūtahi marae.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa Chief Executive Reuben Araroa said a decision had been made to review the operating model for Te Manuka Tūtahi marae and as a result it would cease the Mataatua Visitor Experience and no longer be providing a tourism offering for people walking in off the street or for those who are visiting the area as tourists.

Mr Araroa said after conducting a financial analysis of Te Manuka Tūtahi, it became clear that the original model was significantly challenged given how the tourism sector was performing across Aotearoa, which required the Rūnanga to adapt in a climate of rising costs and low revenue.

“As a result, a decision was made to change the focus on how people and the general public would interact with Te Manuka Tūtahi Marae. The well-known wharenui narrative was that it was built fit for a queen and this new approach will enable us to concentrate on allowing Mataatua Wharenui to be the place for events of greater significance from now on.

Mr Araroa said the Rūnanga was still working on the details of the new model, but Te Manuka Tūtahi marae would no longer be taking tourism bookings as of March 1, however, would be available to Ngāti Awa.

He said the Rūnanga was working with those who had already had bookings for later in the year to communicate the change and its impact on them.

“Our strategic development plan, Te Ara Poutama o Ngāti Awa, acknowledges the importance of Mataatua Wharenui in enhancing the mana of Ngāti Awa and uplifting its people.

“This thinking has helped galvanize the change in focus for Te Manuka Tūtahi marae and so we are also working with our iwi and other stakeholders to understand how they can support the new approach.”

Mataatua Wharenui, Te Manuka Tūtahi Marae