Our Owners

Another year comes to an end - 2017 was a great chapter for the Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa Iwi Trust with some memorable occasions at Ohu Maatu, wonderful events we were excited to be a part of and as always, another year we’ve been able to connect and grow with you – the owners – the manawhenua ki Motueka.

Firstly, we want to say a big thank you to all of you who have connected and engaged with us online, namely our Facebook page. We made the shift several years ago to communicating with you more online through social media, the website and e-Pānui. At that time, we had just 146 people on the Facebook page, and now have over 800. So, if you want to see more of what’s happening in our online community on Facebook check us out here.

Here are some of the highlights from 2017 at the Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa Iwi Trust.

Whenua Planting

Ohu Maatu 2017 was a special time to remember our tūpuna, and an opportunity for reconnecting, learning and celebrating. It was also a time to give back, and acknowledge our ancestors for our legacy. During the weekend we visited Te Uma, to plant the whenua of our new born babies.

Planting the placenta of our new born has been a cultural custom for us for centuries. It was a great opportunity to connect with our whenua (land) as well as our whānau.

NRAIT owner Emma Park shared her perspective of the whenua planting experience, which you can read here.

Kai Fest

Motueka had its very first Kai Fest this year. With performances, great kai and beautiful weather, it was a great way to celebrate the abundance of kai that is sourced from our rohe – the land and the ocean.

We are looking forward to being involved again next year!
Watch the video from Kai Fest 2017.

Education

Following the success of our newly launched education framework in 2016, we were pleased to be able to award more scholarships and grants in 2017 to hard-working NRAIT owners.

Our 2017 scholarship recipients were:

Matua Jansen (supreme award), Andrew Howard, Mariah Hōri Te Pā, Benjamin Kaveney-Gibb, Eden Millan, and Isabella Martell. You can read their stories here.

We also had a fantastic number of grant recipients across a broad range of options including sports and cultural as well as education assistance grants:

Leanne Clayton, Hana Goodwin, Renee Hayes, Tui Henry, Rangi Kaveney, Waimaire Mana, Kaitlyn Moylan, Baylee Niwa, Hayel Niwa, Zayed Studd, Renee Thomas, Wainui Witika-Park, Kylie Willison, Dante Matakatea, Kirsty Willison, Xanthe Banks, Haelyn Ngaia, Hunter Ngaia.

We are pleased to provide our owners with ongoing support in their studies.

NRAIT Music Video

This year’s Ohu Maatu had a great turn out, with many owners returning to Motueka for a weekend of activities and reconnecting with the homelands. At Ohu Maatu this year, we were pleased to premiere the NRAIT music video, written and performed by Tamai Henry, Jayme-Rae Anae and Adrian Wagner. You can watch the NRAIT music video here.

Again, thank you all for being part of our online and offline community, those that make the trip to Motueka each year, and most importantly those that are always around helping to make every hui a success, it makes all the difference to our mahi, and to each other.

Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete me te Tau Hou!