Kia ora koutou katoa, Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke funding for charitable purposes will be available in April. To be eligible for grants you need to be a non-profit organisation or an individual who will not gain profit from the grant, with involvement in activities within the Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke takiwā in the areas of health, welfare, environment, youth, religious, arts and culture. For more information please contact the office on the number listed below. Planning is underway for this event and we will advise full details in the next Te Pānui Rūnaka.
Waharoa
A meeting was held with Caine Tauwhare on Saturday 18 February which encouraged gathering further information of what hapū members were looking to see in the design and framework of the waharoa.
Interim general manager appointed
Please join us in welcoming Andrew Scott, our interim General Manager to the office of Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke. Andrew’s background has included the role of programme manager for Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Whai Rawa and Andrew has hit the ground running with some key projects including the final stage of building the new wharekai, which should be available for use as of 1 July.
Andrew Scott, new Interim General Manager.
Marae portfolio
The wharekai construction will be finished in time to open our doors on 1 July. The whare is used only to allow for our monthly rūnanga meetings. There are a number of bookings that we have been unable to support and the kaupapa they wished to share. Although this has been disappointing, there will be much celebration in learning and sharing again once we have opened the doors. Rongoā is a focus for the marae this year and there has been some positive responses in from hapū members keen to learn more, this is a focus that also works in with our strategic plan and hapū aspirations. Nā Cushla Dwyer.
Recent fires
It was a bittersweet time with the recent and destructive fires that cost both life and home for families. The office was inundated with calls asking around our safety, security and health. It was both heartbreaking and heartwarming with the news that (aligned with the six degrees of separation theory) we did not fully escape someone being connected to us being affected. We were very fortunate and the smoke had risen high enough for business to continue as usual for both the office and the build of the wharekai, with a number of meetings postponed to the following week until the fire had been controlled in the event the one road leading out of Governors Bay via Lyttelton tunnel was required to provide any possible evacuations and congestion on the road. Any requirement to be in the area was definitely kept to a minimum.
It was reassuring to have a Civil Defence radio with the frequency set to any news on the Banks Peninsula and caring areas of community wishing to provide anything we may be in aid of.
The photo included with this article shows how close we were to the situation and it has raised the issue to strengthen our community with more communication around potential dangers and the possibility of isolation we may face should roads become inaccessible.
Thank you again for all the relationships with members of our hapū that are built between our marae and areas of the community in the supportive mahi they provide. For any booking information or enquiries please contact the office on 03 328 9415.
The recent fires approaching.