An Update from Chief Executive Officer: Lewis Ratapu
Tēnā anō tātau ngā uri o rātou kua waiho mai ki muri kia kawe tonutia ngā tini kaupapa mō ngā uri whakatipu. Tēnā koutou katoa.
Highlights for me last quarter was another great Annual General Meeting (AGM) with over 150 whānau attending the housing development and orchard tours as well as the meeting. It was a day of pride for whānau and kaimahi to see how far we have come in just a short time despite the challengens of a pandemic, a cyclone and flooding. At the AGM we also launched our new strategic 50 year vision, “He pā tūwatawata”, whānau living together on their whenua self-sustaining, resilient and prospering. The vision is taken from a saying coined by Taharakau when he visited Te Wairoa at the request of his whanaunga, Taupwae. This vision is our expression of rangatiratanga to be exercised through 5 pathways, taking back our whenua, building homes, mana motuhake for hapū and whānau, delivery of health and education, and asserting rangatiratanga over te taiao.
From an operational perspective things have not slowed down since returning from holidays. The regulatory reforms of this current government continued over the break and meant that we have had to prepare well considered arguments that seek to protect the rights and interests guranteed in our settlement. The trust has contiued to process applications for homes at Te Rauā, assist whānau to move in, as well as support whānau already in homes with wellbeing checks, programmes and maara kai. We lodged a global consent with council to make over 40 cabins provided as temporary accommodation during Cyclone Gabrielle into permanent additions to homes. We have also met with whānau who want to purchase these cabins, placed them onto our ownership course and are arranging a loan through our new partner Kaenga Hou. We are in the last phase of establishing our Taiao Unit, Te Hā o Rangi, o Papa, including our taiaō monitoring programme. We ran a UAV Drone course during the quarter for local operators. The unit has also completed most of the submission work to proposed Bills. Our Mātauranga Māori team has been busy providing health and wellbeing asessments for whānau in homes and received a well deserved commendation from Te Whatu Ora for their mahi. Our Pae Tapu Pae Rangatira wānanga continued this quarter with Tuāhuru Marae hosting in March and Whakakī Marae to host the next.
Our mahi to support governance has included the induction of our new trust directors, onboarding of our new Chair and recruitment for new forest directors and Mātangirau Reserve Board trustees. The implementation of the Kotahitanga findings, preparation for the Social & Economic Revitalisation Strategy and Tri-partite kaupapa with our central and local government partners rounds off a very busy period of the year. The next quarter sees us completing projects within our annual plan and tackling the new annual plan and budget for the new financial year 2026/2027.
Nāreira, kia tau iho te tauwhirotanga ā te wāhi ngaro ki runga i a koutou.
Nā Lewis