Kaiwhakahaere Report
June 2009
The last month could be described as a month of collaboration. I have had the opportunity and privilege to work with a number of groups that are each seeking to maximise opportunities brought by the recession.
One of the key initiatives I am involved in is the Minister of Māori Affairs’ Taskforce on Māori Economic Development. This group is dedicated to three key objectives:
- Supporting iwi and Māori through the economic recession;
- Identifying longer term, strategic economic development opportunities for iwi and Māori; and
- Facilitating the use of kaupapa Māori values and ways to increase economic development and benefit sharing.
I have real confidence in the value of this work, providing each of the members produces real and tangible outcomes for our people. I believe that we are each doing our best to produce real world solutions and improvements to our economic development. I would like to commend my peers in producing, at this early stage, innovative options such as an investment fund for iwi and Māori organisations that serve as a source of much needed capital, collaborating with our Pacific whanaunga in fisheries and designing new labour market force programmes that are better able to support our people and link to the unique needs of the Māori economy.
My role in the taskforce is to work on the better utilisation of Māori assets. One of my key areas of focus is working with leaders to identify how we can better base our commercial operations on mātauranga, kaupapa and tikanga. I believe that iwi and Māori organisations need this work done because there isn’t a tool kit in existence yet for doing this well.
There are many good reasons why iwi and Māori commercialism needs to be aligned with our values, and I am confident that we will find practical tools that can help, including an accounting system that recognises the importance we place on adhering to our values. This work, once it is done, will help iwi and Māori to partner in commercial areas and it will also increase our commercial success by strengthening our brand identity in the market.
Put simply, I am working on developing the ways that we can authentically and successfully be Māori within our commercial operations.
The Taskforce work will continue over the next two years and I look forward to providing regular updates on our progress.
Also during the past month, and as an expression of our whanaungatanga, we hosted Ngāti Kuia to a meeting and dinner. Ngāti Kuia are seeking to learn from our post-Settlement experience. Their leaders are particularly interested in the operational aspects of the environmental mechanisms that are in our Deed of Settlement and the degree to which they have served to protect natural taonga.
On May 26, I attended a meeting of the Board of Directors of Te Tapuae o Rehua where there was a good discussion about the new Strategic Plan. We also talked about the need to continue to implement programmes in the secondary sector to encourage more Māori to enrol in tertiary studies. We identified a need for stronger advocacy of the work of Te Tapuae o Rehua with Crown agencies and explored ways to better co-ordinate Māori initiatives across the partner agencies.
I have had the opportunity to support Canterbury’s ethnic communities on two occasions in this reporting period. On May 21, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu co-hosted with the Office of Ethnic Affairs a presentation by Mr Philippe Legrain, who is a Visiting Fellow at the European Institute of the London School of Economics. Also for the Office of Ethnic Affairs, I participated in a public dialogue on ethnic diversity at the Christchurch Arts Gallery. For Ngāi Tahu it is important that we are connected to, and involved with, the cultural groups that surround us. On these occasions I am able to share with newcomers the idea of rangatiratanga and to share our joint interest in creating a community where we can freely express our cultural identity.
And finally, I was one of the key note speakers at the Prime Minister’s South Island Forum in Christchurch. This public event was hosted by ‘The Press’ and sold out in a very short period. Members of the public were able to question the Prime Minister about the Budget, as well as other guest speakers in regard to their plans for the recession. It was a good opportunity to explain to the Christchurch community that it is the intergenerational picture that we need to be mindful of and that to move forward we need a common commitment to community prosperity.