Our Trust

Board Blog April/May

Posted by Jeremy Banks on 19 May 2014

 

Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitu te whenua.  Tēna ra koutou katoa.

Ohu Maatu 2014 is done and dusted and what a weekend it was.  It was structured around our Annual General Meeting where we all caught up on the activities of the Trust over the past year; however the goal was to make it a much bigger weekend than just the formalities of the AGM.  The Kahukura whānau planned a reunion to coincide with the AGM and it was fantastic to see so many of our whānau re-connecting with their Te Tau Ihu whānau and whenua.

Highlights of the weekend were whakawhanaungatanga in our whare tupuna Turangapeke, site visits to our awa and also up the Takaka hill to hear about the taniwha Ngararahuarau and of course a fantastic hakari.  Our chairman Paul Morgan announced his retirement from the chair at the AGM and the hakari provided a great opportunity for us to recognise his significant efforts to our organisation.  Paul was presented with a taonga on behalf of us all and it was an opportunity for several members to pay tribute to Paul and for Paul to offer some poignant thoughts on his time as the chair of NRAIT.

At our board meeting prior to the AGM we heard from Ian Sheaves from Wakatū Property, who gave us a presentation regarding the proposed Motueka West Development Plan.  The discussions that began at the previous hui around access rights to Te Uma was progressed and we are working on developing a framework to govern this.  We are also reviewing our Tautoko Policy and as part of this are developing a Tangi Policy to help guide us going forward.

There is also work being put in to determine how best to work with Wakatū Incorporation where we have commonalities in our whakapapa databases. There are some large efficiency gains to be had here, but we need to remain aware of member confidentiality.

As reported at the AGM we are also working with Habitat for Humanity to look at a joint affordable housing project. 

As the weather turns a bit cooler the Board is turning its focus to our upcoming strategic planning session.  This is a good opportunity for us to reflect on the previous year and set our strategy for the year ahead of us.

 

A kati e te whānau, e haere mai ana te hotoke nō reira kia mahana, kia ora, kia koakoa hoki.

NRAIT Board Blog

Posted by Jeremy Banks on 16 December 2013

As you are probably aware one of our large focuses here at NRAIT currently is around communication and how we make sure that our members are aware of what is going on within the organisation.  With this in mind we have decided to get our trustees to provide a brief, informal update following board meetings to keep everyone in the loop.

Ngā mihi o te wā hararei ki a koutou katoa

On Friday the 6th of December we met up for our last hui of the year.  We covered a lot of ground, I'll pick out some of the highlights.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the skills and strengths of our Trustees.  Trustees have been tasked with identifying what they can do to up-skill and ensure that they have an appropriate skill set to perform their duties going forward.  As Trustees we are very aware of the importance of preserving and growing our taonga tuku iho.  In the ever changing environment that we are operating in we need to make sure that our knowledge remains current and relevant.

There has been a lot of work put in lately to create effective Dashboards, both across our financials and also to help us track progress for our Te Whanake initiatives.  These are proving very useful to gain a quick understanding of where things are at.

We have completed our Communications review and a Communications Strategy has been developed.  So now it's time to prioritise the suggestions and put them in to action.  Thank you for all that have been involved and the invaluable feedback you have provided.

Some feedback from this we have received is about improving how we communicate at our AGM.  We are looking at ways of trying to make this event more accessible and relevant for our members and make the information being communicated easier to understand.

We are also looking at ways of increasing uptake for education grants and scholarships and ensuring they are accessible and relevant to our members needs.

We are very excited about the appointment of Hamihi Duncan as Motueka High School's new Māori Head of Department.  Hamihi has a very strong Te Reo and Māori education background and has already expressed a strong interest in local dialect, haka and history, to ensure that his teachings are relevant for our rohe.

And finally it was great to have our hui closed with a karakia by John Katene.

Ngā mihi maioha ki a koutou katoa.  Kia pai tō koutou whakata me ō koutou whānau.

Waitangi Tribunal Update - July

Posted by NRAIT on 31 July 2013

On 31 July your Trustees filed a submission on the Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill on behalf of Ngāti Rārua Ᾱtiawa Iwi Trust descendants asking that the Bill not be passed in its present form and that the Crown resume the settlement process for the mana whenua ki Motueka. Our reasons for pursuing this course of action are threefold:

1. The Bill discriminates against and cuts across the legal rights of the mana whenua ki Motueka to resolve their claims with the Crown as they see fit.
2. The Ngāti Rārua Atiawa Iwi Trust had no involvement in negotiation of the settlements outlined in the Bill, and we do not accept that it settles the historic grievances of NRAIT descendants.
3. The iwi trusts who negotiated and agreed to settle their own claims had no mandate to settle the claims of our Trust.

It is deeply unfortunate that we have had to resort to this action but the issues involved are of immense concern and have a fundamental impact on NRAIT descendants, whose rights we are bound under our Empowering Act to protect. It is important to recognise that the return of the Whakarewa lands under that Act was a private settlement with the Anglican Church, not a Treaty of Waitangi settlement. This was acknowledged by the Waitangi Tribunal in its 2008 report on the Northern South Island Claims that stated that the Whakarewa lands were returning not to the beneficiaries of the tenths “…but to those iwi more connected to the particular lands (the resident iwi of Motueka). Nonetheless the fact that this land has finally been returned does not settle their Treaty claims either.”

We regret any discomfort this action may cause among NRAIT owners and we are committed as your Trustees to protecting your rights and endeavouring to resolve the issues to the very best of our ability.