Poroporoaki for Maurice Manawatu

Maurice Manawatu, a long-serving Ngāi Tahu representative on the Department of Conservation (DoC) board, was farewelled from his role on 8 October.

We had a farewell for Maurice, who has been a board member since September 1998. Many stories were shared among board and DoC members at the dinner. Maurice will be missed as a board member but will always be passionate when it comes to the whenua regardless of his retirement from the board. He will be replaced by Amelia Taylor, who noted that she has “big shoes to fill”. Amelia takes her passion for Papatūānuku very seriously and is looking forward to this new role.

Long-serving member Maurice Manawatu leaves the Department of Conservation Board.

Long-serving member Maurice Manawatu leaves the Department of Conservation Board.

Ngāi Tahu hui at Puketeraki

Aunty Darcia Solomon, Raewyn Solomon and Amelia Taylor attended the Ngāi Tahu tribal wānanga on mining, oil and gas activities held at Puketeraki on 4-5 October.

It was a great opportunity for ngā rūnanga to come together and kōrero about the issues at hand. Te Rūnanga o Kaikōura opposes the proposed exploration and drilling in the Pegasus Basin off the coast of Kaikōura. There were several very inspirational speakers at the hui and it was a heartfelt experience hearing kōrero from the younger generation about climate change and what are we leaving for our next generation.

Puketeraki are ātaahua hosts and kept our puku well-nourished. As always, they showed manaaki, awhi and whanaungatanga. Many thanks to the Ngāi Tahu team for organising the hui and we look forward to more in the near future.