The year in review - NRAIT's wrap up of 2016
Over the past few years we’ve been making a conscious effort to move our communication with NRAIT members to online platforms – we’ve been wanting to reach more of you and share more with you. As a result we’ve had an enjoyable year of engaging with the Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa ki Motueka hapū on our Facebook page and via our eNewsletter Eke Pānuku, and now finish the year with a great Facebook timeline of what has happened in 2016.
As we scroll through we came across some key events and mahi that we wanted to share. Here’s a quick re-cap of 2016 at the Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa Iwi Trust.
New education programme
This year we launched our new education funding programme, which offered NRAIT members a broader range of education funding options. These included new grants for anyone wanting to pursue further education, and scholarships for specific subject areas. This move was to create greater accessibility to any member wanting to develop skill sets, while also focusing on the jobs that Aotearoa needs people to be in, such as science, technology, engineering and maths.
For most years we have more grants available than applicants that apply for them, or that fit within the criteria, so we’ll continue to explore initiatives to get more members taking up the grants and scholarship opportunities in the future.
Find out about this year’s grant and scholarship winners here.
Community and hapū support
The Trust puts a lot of emphasis in supporting members through a model where we aim to provide the tools rather than the solution. We do this through sponsorship when it fits within the benefits that we are able to provide as governed by the legislation our Trust operates under – The Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa Iwi Trust Empowering Act 1993. A few things we’ve done in this year include:
- Sponsoring NRAIT member Connor Alexander on a five-day boot camp to Silicon Valley in San Francisco. The opportunity was to inspire Māori students to be the new generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists and thinkers and to encourage them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and maths. This fit well within the aims of the Trust so we jumped at the opportunity to send one of our members along. You can read Connor’s kōrero here.
- The other big project this year that NRAIT sponsored, along with several others in the region, was the building of Te Whare Taikura o Te Maatu at Motueka High School. The whare is a cultural center at the local high school where Māori and Pasifika will have their academic and cultural needs met. To ensure our language continues to be taught, and our kōrero is not lost, the decision to support the build of the whare was an easy one. Learn more about Te Whare Taikura o Te Maatu here.
New initiatives and project facilitators
We also brought two new members on to the team for 12 months to run some specific projects for our members. Joesephine Nathan and Steve Kenny have already begun their mahi with the Heke Ora Challenge, with more initiatives to come in 2017.
Check them out and get involved in the challenges that they’re putting together for members.
Saying goodbye
We also had to say goodbye to few NRAIT people this year – never an easy thing to do.
The first was saying goodbye to Pat Park who passed on 31 May 2016. He was a staunch friend of NRAIT and an incoming Trustee. We posted a photo of Pat on our Facebook page to notify members of the sad news, to which many left messages of great memories. Pat was buried at NRAIT’s urupa, Te Uma in June 2016.
Our second goodbye was to Renee Kelly (nee Thomas) who moved on to take a new role at the Ngāti Tama ki Te Waipounamu Trust. She was with the NRAIT team for 10 years as the in-house accountant. Her enthusiasm and smiling face will be missed.
We greatly appreciate the member engagement on our channels over the year – it makes all the difference to our mahi that we can interact with you on a regular basis.
Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete me te Tau Hou!