Pūmanawa – recognising our hapū’s entrepreneurial legacy

Posted by on 6 March 2017

Celebrating our hapu

One of the earliest European commentators, Captain Fredrick Moore, noted the entrepreneurial character of our ancestors - he observed that our ancestors already had large tracts of land under cultivation in the ‘Big Wood’ (we know it as Te Maatu) when Europeans had arrived, and that our cultivations were not only to meet our own requirements, but also goods for trading with whalers, and traders at Queen Charlotte Sound, Tory Channel and Port Underwood. 

By the 1850s, a third of the sailing ships registered at the Port of Nelson were owned by our ancestors, working Te Tai o Aotere, Raukawa Moana and as far afield as Australia, trading the goods we were producing.

This legacy continues to live on today, with large food and beverage businesses like Kono thriving in our local communities, but the Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa ki Motueka hapū also have several members that have taken the leap into business ownership.

Celebrating business owners

  • NRAIT Trustee and member Jeremy Banks has worked in IT all of his life, but in June 2015 he caught the entrepreneurial bug and started working for himself. Jeremy craved business ownership and wanted to start his own IT company. The result…Plink Software. Plink is developing some exciting new projects including a Te Reo Māori micro translation service aimed at increasing Te Reo usage in everyday situations, and Whakapapa geneology software. Recently Plink launched Tipu, an interactive and fun mobile app that helps users learn Te Reo from their phone.
  • Ngawaina Joy Shorrock owns and operates Whenu Ltd. Whenu incorporates Joy’s love of weaving with enterprise. Along with taking harakeke (flax weaving) workshops she also works alongside businesses that need kono (small food baskets) and other woven flax items.
  • Moana Wakefield is the owner and head trainer for Pūrotu Health & Wellness based in Porirua. Moana is a personal trainer and massage therapist, and was also health and fitness trainer for the recent Heke Ora Challenge for NRAIT whānau.
  • Also an NRAIT Trustee, Jarrod Buchanan started Holiday Nelson Ltd in 2008, which is now Nelson’s largest holiday home marketing and property management service. If you’re visiting Nelson and need a place to relax you’ve got to check out their website.

We’d love to hear about more NRAIT business owners and share your kōrero, so send us a message on Facebook and tell us about how you’re continuing the Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa ki Motueka hapū’s entrepreneurial legacy.