TOITŪ TE MANA
A background to AWHI – the Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation
TOITŪ TE WHENUA
Awhi honey creates a buzz in the USA
TOITŪ TE TANGATA
New project to focus on boosting productivity
6 A BACKGROUND TO AWHI –THE ĀTIHAU-WHANGANUI INCORPORATION
The second article in our historical series.
20 CONSUMERS BUY ONLINE DURING PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN
COVID-19 brought plenty of challenges - but created opportunities too.
10 PASSION AND DETERMINATION – THE LIFE OF
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2020
Date: Thursday 10 December
2020
Location: Whanganui
Racecourse
Full agenda to be published in November.
18 READING THE SIGNS: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN MĀTAURANGA MĀORI AND SCIENCE CONVERGE?
the holistic way of caring for the whenua.
The
AWHI MAGAZINE
Editor Mavis Mullins
Deputy Editor Polly Catlin-Maybury
Creative Director Sheree Anaru
Photography Quentin Bedwell
Graphic Design Dave Pope
ĀTIHAU-WHANGANUI INCORPORATION
Postal PO Box 4035
Whanganui 4541
Physical 16 Bell Street
Whanganui 4500
Ohakune 22 Ayr Street
Ohakune 4625
Telephone +64 (6) 348 7213
Fax +64 (6) 348 7482
Email office@atihau.com www.atihau.com
iSTUDIOS MULTIMEDIA LTD
Postal PO Box 8383
New Plymouth 4340
Phyisical 77B Devon Street East
New Plymouth 4310
Telephone +64 (6) 758 1863
Email info@istudios.co.nz www.istudios.co.nz
COVER PHOTO
He mate ohorere, he mate mōketekete
Hotuhotu kau ana te manawa
Tangi kau ana te koporeihana
Mōu e te rangatira.
Me pēhea te kōrero mōu?
Nāu anō te ōhākī o ngā tūpuna i whakatinana
Kia pūāwai ai te koporeihana
Hei oranga, hei painga mō te katoa
Ka kore rawa te puna o roimata e maroke noa
Waiho mātou ki muri nei
Hei matapōrehu mōu.
Haere atu rā ki te iwi nui
Piataata mai i te rangi
E au te moe, e au te moe.
Success comes in many forms, but how you are remembered by your friends and whānau once you have departed from this world is a true measure of how you have lived your life.
We remember Toni Waho, who served for 12 years on the Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation Board, as a flamboyant, smart, passionate, determined friend and teacher. His dedication to all things Māori, our language and kaupapa, our legacies and our future was both inspiring and uncompromising. We celebrate his energy, vision and resilience in this issue of AWHI Magazine. Moe mai rā, e te rangatira.
Toni Waho - ĀtihauWhanganui Incorporation Board member, dedicated teacher, Te Reo Māori advocate and passionate historian.
CONTRIBUTORS
Polly Catlin-Maybury
Moana Ellis
Amokura Panoho
Cover Photo by: Aaron Smale
Change and uncertainty has become a constant challenge to be addressed this year for our business, whanau and our communities. Feeling uneasy and a little afraid of what the future will bring is something we are all experiencing. Being prepared is the best defence, and so your Board has spent the last six months reviewing and strengthening our strategies and relationships to ensure our family business remains prepared, flexible and relevant. Part of our strategic approach has always been to engage regularly with our bank, seeking an independent perspective to our plans and reassurance that we remain on track with our financial planning. We share some of that independent kōrero with you, to affirm that your future interests are at the heart of every decision we make.
Using the wisdom of the past is an important element of how we operate as a business and as a people, so we are pleased to share an exciting new project that brings mātauranga Māori and modern science together to improve the sustainability of environmental practices. An exciting space.
We are looking forward to our AGM, although we do not yet know if this will take place in person or online due to COVID-19 restrictions. We thank you for your patience as we respond appropriately to any guidelines and work through the practical and legal requirements.
Noho
ora mai Mavis Mullins ChairpersonFor the last two months, we’ve been considering how the 2020 AGM will be impacted by COVID 19, and what, if anything we should do differently.
There are several purposes for the AGM:
1. Promote whanaungatangato connect with each other, shareholders with shareholders, and shareholders with board and management.
2. To provide information to shareholders.
3. To provide the opportunity to answer shareholder questions, and ensure board and management are held accountable.
4. To give shareholders the chance to hear from director nominees in person.
5. To give shareholders the chance to vote on important matters.
The Covid 19 restrictions mean that on level 2 we can’t have more then 100 people at an AGM, at level 3 or 4 a
normal AGM is not possible.
When considering what to do we wanted to make sure that we could still achieve the purpose of the AGM, and that no shareholder, or director nominee was disadvantaged by a change to the AGM format.
Because of this we’ve decided to proceed with the 2020 AGM as normal, and if we are at level 2 or higher in the week leading up to the AGM, there will be an alternative plan. Shareholders will be informed immediately. A notice emailed out, advertised in the Whanganui Chronicle and Ruapehu Bulletin, posted on social media and the website, and through Awa FM.
An online meeting was possible, but due to constitutional and legislative restrictions, this could not be done without significantly limiting the
number of people attending in person. In doing so we wouldn’t have achieved the purpose of the AGM, and would have disadvantaged some shareholders and director nominees.
To prevent constitutional and legislative restictions preventing us from holding online and in person AGM’s at the same time in the future a special resolution will be presented at this year’s AGM. This resoluton, if passed, will allow shareholders to participate and vote at an AGM held online, and will allow this to occur in tandem with a normal in person AGM.
Thank you for your patience during this time and we look forward to seeing you all, in person in the near future.
Ngā mihi nui.
E tangi ana te Kawekawea
E tata mai ana te Pīpīwharauroa
Kia kite ai i ngā hua o te mōrehu whenua
Ki runga i a tātau te mōrehu tāngata Kūī! Kūī! Whitiwhiti ora!
Tahia te pō, tahia te tau
Kia moe mārire ai te hunga kua pō, e moe, e oki.
Tēnei tātau te mōrehu tāngata e hāpai ana i te kakau o te kō kia kite i te parauri o te whenua hei painga mā tātau ngā kaipupuri hea, tēnā tātau.
In the last issue of AWHI Magazine, we published an article written by then director of the Board Toni Waho, which was published in the very first issue of AWHI magazine.
This article, also by Toni, appeared in the second issue of the magazine and as part of the 50th anniversary of the Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation, to acknowledge its beginnings and those who worked so hard to ensure that our people could maintain their connection with the whenua, the article is being reproduced here in its entirety.
In our first edition of AWHI we highlighted the history of vesting of the ‘mōrehu whenua’ to incorporation status in 1970 through to the corporate entity we run in 2015, all for the betterment of the ‘mōrehu tāngata’. In this edition we look into the life of the man that secured our last remnants of land interests for the protection of future generations, Taitoko Te Rangihiwinui, more commonly
known as Te Keepa or Major Kemp (Meiha Keepa).
‘te morehu whenua, te morehu tāngata’ Rangihiwinui uttered the above words which have been immortalised in Whanganui tribal and land history. The intention was about protecting the last remnants of the land for the survivors of the last 53 years of turbulence for the people and future generations. This is key as Te Rangihiwinui’s leadership evolved from one that supported the interests of the settler government to help protect his people through to a leader who used his wit and influence to challenge the Crown with his own pen.
Te Rangihiwinui was born in the first half of the 1820s in the tribal area of his father Tanguru-i-te-rangi and his mother, Te Rereomaki, was from Whanganui and a sister to Hori Kingi Te Anaua and Te Mawae (II). The three siblings signed the Tiriti o Waitangi and made up the famous Te Anaua dynasty, of which Te Rangihiwinui inherited. He was born at a time when both his parents’ people had suffered great loss following the musket wars between 1810s and 1820s. This shaped his future and the future of his affiliated hapū and iwi as they partnered with the settler government to regain prominence along the west coast of the southern North Island.
Te Rangihiwinui was a strategist and formidable leader, both in war and in later life when he relied on the saying, ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’. From the 1840s to the 1860s he utilised this time to grow relationships with the settlers based in the new Whanganui township. He saw these relationships as key to grow the prosperity and commercial opportunities of the Whanganui tribes, however, on 14 May 1864 at the Battle of Moutoa, the history of Whanganui changed and split our people. For the next 10 years he supported the Crown forces on campaigns around the country but by the late 1870s he had lost respect for a government that didn’t keep to their word, broke promises and started to change his people’s world – the land and river.
Te Rangihiwinui challenged the government as they started to legalise the destruction of pā-tuna along the river for tourism purposes that our people would not benefit from. It is under his leadership that our fight for the Whanganui River started in 1877 and concluded in 2014 at Rānana.
He also established a whare rūnanga at Kauika Marae, Rānana. This house was named Huriwhenua as sign to the country that he was turning to fight the Crown against their continued destruction of our land interests, both illegally and through coercion. This whare rūnanga was a key sign and it was
from this time that he reached out to Māori from differing sides of the recent wars to reconcile and support each other to protect the remaining land interests. He also reconciled with Te Kooti, a man he had pursued as part of Crown forces and now welcomed him to the river as a prophet and respected leader.
By the time John Ballance and James Carroll arrived at Rānana in 1893, he was resolute in his efforts to protect the remnants of the land for the benefit of survivors of his tribe. It was at this gathering that the notion of ‘Kemp’s Trust’ was mooted and realised in the early 1900s. Kemp’s Trust was charged with entrusting Māori land into a board of Māori that would develop the land and start a journey of prosperity for our people. Instead, the Crown changed the law and took over our lands up until 1970, when, with the establishment, we started a long journey to slowly take over the management and governance of our own lands.
It was deliberate that Te Rangihiwinui established his council, Huriwhenua, at Rānana as he also influenced the Rev. Richard Taylor in naming this kāinga that he strongly affiliated to so that his daughter, Wikitoria (named after Queen Victoria), could then have her own London. Wikitoria was his daughter to his first wife Makareta and his last wife was Raua Mata Kaihoe. His last marriage was to
“ Te Rangihiwinui was a strategist and formidable leader, both in war and in later life when he relied on the saying, ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’”Toni Waho
secure political power and Raua Mata Kaihoe with his daughter Wikitoria carried on his legacy.
The surviving memorials of this great leader and the forefather of all land trusts and incorporations throughout the Aotea District are the statue of Te Rangihiwinui at Pākaitore and more importantly, the wharepuni at Rānana Marae, Te Morehu.
Huriwhenua started to rot by the end of the century and was shortened and rededicated with a new name Te Morehu to remember the famous saying uttered by Te Rangihiwinui. The wharepuni was moved from Kauika to stand next to Ruaka at the top marae and Te Morehu stands as a reminder that the remnants of the land should
always be protected and grown for the benefit of the descendants of the survivors, for generations to come. In closing, we remember the words of the founding chair of AtihauWhanganui Incorporation, Dr Whakaari Rangitākuku Metekingi
who married the namesake of Te Rangihiwinui’s daughter, Wikitoria:
‘he ao āpōpō, he ao tea – our future is bright and with it comes clarity’.
“
Te Rangihiwinui challenged the government as they started to legalise the destruction of pātuna along the river for tourism purposes...”
Toni WahoHuriwhenua meeting house at Ranana. Ref: 1/1-000490-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
The contribution that Toni Waho made to the Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation, serving 12 years on the Board, is immeasurable. With his recent passing, AWHI Magazine pays tribute to the man he was and the life he lived, creating a legacy that will last for generations.
When Toni Waho knew something to be true, he was uncompromising, determined and passionate in his pursuit of it.
His belief in the power of te reo Māori to rebuild a culture and provide a future for those to come was absolute, and he dedicated his life to making his vision a reality.
Toni spoke with passion and humour of how he perceived te reo Māori contributed to building pathways at a Families Commission event in 2011, saying, “My past is my future - the past I yearn for will catapult Māori to a limitless fulfilment of potential beyond our wildest dreams.”
The son of Margaret and Edward Davis (Waho), Toni grew up with brothers Keri, Rick, and Mark, building a strong association to his Ngā Mōkai Papakāinga at Karioi.
His penchant and talent for research and writing started young after he won a regional primary school speech competition in 1972. His essay ‘Why the Māori language should be taught in schools’, responded to a newspaper article he had read featuring Māori University students calling for a petition to go to parliament to make te reo Māori part of the education curriculum.
Despite his young zeal, he could not speak te reo Māori when he finished his education at Palmerston North Boys’ High School—just English and French.
A trip to British Columbia, Canada, as an exchange student, gave Toni the opportunity to meet and talk with Secwepemc, one of the country’s First Nations people, who he thought had very similar traits, personality and humour to his Māori family at home.
“I could have been at the Pā. It was exactly the same except they had giant salmon there. But everything was the same, the bad jokes from the
uncles, all of that kind of stuff,” he said of his time with them.
Toni returned to New Zealand for a short period before heading back to Canada to be a singer in a rock band called Castle. Ambitions of becoming a rockstar were forgotten when both of his grandfathers passed away and he wasn’t able return in time for their tangi. Realising it was too difficult to be so far away from his family, Toni returned to New Zealand and immediately enrolled at Victoria University to study law.
This decision was to be a seminal moment in Toni’s life as Ruka Broughton Snr was his reo lecturer. Ruka was passionate about the preservation of the language, and with his mentorship Toni’s commitment to te reo grew alongside his love for research and lobbying. These skills, honed during his time at university, were to hold
him in good stead for the future leadership roles he was to fill.
“When we met, I was living in Palmerston North”, says Penny Poutu, Toni’s partner of 33 years and mother of his two children Hinurewa and Peehi. “He was in his third year of law on a Maori law scholarship, but he said to me, ‘I don’t think I am going to be the lawyer with a condominium in Hawaii.’”
“So, he changed tack, spending more time with his grandmother Hinurewa Whakapu, (also known as Oke Tumango), a native reo speaker who was living in Karioi and focused on learning his reo and the history of his family’s connection to the land.”
Whatarangi Murphy-Peehi, a long-standing Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation trustee, remembers Toni during this time as a young
responded to a newspaper article he had read featuring Māori University students calling for a petition to go to parliament to make te reo part of the education curriculum.
[Toni’s] essay “Why the Māori language should be taught in schools,”
man who often visited his parents, Robyn and Te Ua Murphy Peehi.
“He was around during the latter years with the Morikau Incorporation relationship where he would try to get a better understanding of what our earlier leaders, like my dad and Rangi Mete Kingi, were trying to achieve. The time he spent with my mother was really about learning the history, the stories,” he says.
“When he was elected to the Committee of Management, he certainly spoke up if he didn’t think things were going right. We were good mates and we got up to some antics, challenging each other, but I could rely on his advice especially when I had reports to present. He would help me articulate the information so I could get my message across to shareholders.”
Toni’s belief in the importance of te reo Māori meant that by the time he and Penny became parents, they had decided to not speak English to their babies.
“His te reo was better than mine,” says Penny. “So, I went back to work and he looked after Hinurewa, taking her with him to his part-time lecturing role at Massey University.”
“He was definitely breaking the mould back then as it was literally
unheard of, but Toni went about being a young father with his natural enthusiasm.”
“And though the washing might be out on the line by ten in the morning, if the sun was shining he’d take her to the beach, and bugger the rest of the housework. That’s the sort of father he was.”
Both Toni and Penny would strengthen their commitment to their children’s reo education by
establishing, with other members of the community, Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Manawatū in Palmerston North in 1989. Te Kōhanga Reo o Mana Tamariki and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Mana Tamariki were established in the years that followed. Mana Tamariki has since grown to include a wharekura.
“It was a long drawn out battle to create that school, and ugly at times, but Toni’s legal training definitely came in handy to help navigate our way through government bureaucracy,” says Penny.
“He remembered there was a 1962 Māori Schools Act but he didn’t know if it was still live, so he rang this lady at the Victoria University library and introduced himself.
“ We were good mates and we got up to some antics, challenging each other, but I could rely on his advice especially when I had reports to present.”
Whatarangi Murphy-Peehi
She remembered him and dug it out for us and that became one of the tools we used in our campaign.
“It wasn’t surprising because Toni was a very memorable person, it does sadden me that our mokopuna won’t get to grow up with his presence.”
“Toni put his style into
everything he was involved with,” says Mavis Mullins, Chair of Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation.
“He was a big part of our drive to invest in our own people, our rangatahi. He became our inaugural chair when we set up Te Āti Hau Trust and helped champion the importance of bringing our young ones back onto the whenua.”
Toni was actively involved in the establishment and operation of the Incorporation’s agribusiness training programme, Awhiwhenua, which is run in partnership with Land Based Training, until just few years ago.
Utilising Ngā Mōkai as the training base since 2010 was seen by Toni as a real celebration, not only of the hard work it had taken to rebuild the marae, but in demonstrating how a distribution back to shareholders is not all about pūtea, that it can be investment in the future on their behalf.
“We now have Awhiwhenua House which is not only functional but beautiful, because of Toni,” adds Mavis. “We used to have the graduation for the programme at Ngā Mōkai where it was intimate and a lovely place to be.
“I hope Toni will be proud that we are now holding the graduation at our annual general meeting so that our uri are
acknowledged in front of around 700 shareholders.”
Toni’s daughter, language advocate Dr Hinurewa Poutu, says her connection with her family and marae are down to her father.
“Dad’s involvement with the ĀtihauWhanganui Inc was, to me, his expression of rangatiratanga,” says Hinurewa. “He was passionate about te reo and education and was often active outside of our rohe working. Peehi (her younger brother) and I mostly grew up in the Manawatū, but he ensured that we valued our whakapapa and connections to home.”
“I remember Ngā Mōkai being overrun with livestock running through the wharenui, but dad was determined to revive the Pā. That achievement now forms a part of his legacy in which I know I will take an active role.”
“Dad also coined the name AWHI which has grown to be an important brand for the incorporation, part of the tikanga and resources from the whenua that enable us as uri to survive.”
Hinurewa says it’s sad that the Ngāti Rangi treaty settlement negotiations around Te Kāhui Maunga were not resolved before her father’s untimely death. “One quality he really demonstrated in his lifetime was ‘mahia te mahi’,” she says.
We will give our last words in this tribute to Toni himself – speaking at that same Families Commission hui, he said;
“On my death, thanks to the many Māori builders that built for me, and my descendants and thousands of other Māori, the pathways to the future that I have tread, I will depart peacefully with the knowledge that all I have enjoyed will be enjoyed by my descendants.”
E tau rā ko te reo kāmehameha o Karioi
Ki runga Te Ranga-a-Kauika te tū nei
Heke iho ki Taiwiri, ki Ngā Mōkai, ki Tirorangi
Whaia te Tokiāhuru, te Whangaehu e tere nei
Kia rangona ai te reo kōruarua o ngā
mātua tūpuna
Hei oranga i te mana o ngā tamariki
Nāu anō te pātaka kupu i hora
Mōu i whakatangetange riaka
Te oranga o te reo te take
E huri ki Te Pā
Ki Ōmerei, ki Ngā Puke, ki Ōkiore ki
raro
Nāu anō te whenua i awhi
Hei whangai i ngā uri whakatipu
Kia whaia te mātauranga
ahuwhenua
Kia tutuki ai te ōhāki o Taitoko
Te mōrehu tāngata, te mōrehu
whenua
E te Manukura ko koe te tauira
Te whakatinatinatanga o Koporeihana
Waiho tō reo Māori ki Karioi
Hei whakarauora i te iwi whānui
E huri ki Ngā Turi o Murimotu
Mātou ka whakamōteateatia koe
Haere atu rā ki te iwi nui
Kia au te moe, okioki mai rā.
“
We’re now seeing real learning and benefit from observing such signs as the position of the sun, the stars, the flowering of trees, the arrival and departure of birds, and leading out activity according to environmentally-led triggers and observations.” – Professor Rangi Matamua
Since the 1800s, New Zealand’s land, ocean and resource management systems have focused on European perspectives of science - but there is growing interest in how western science and traditional Māori knowledge can converge to improve the sustainability of environmental practices.
Māori tūpuna were experts at reading the natural world and
interpreting the signs, shaping the way people connected with the environment. Long before satellite studies of weather systems and GPS, tūpuna voyagers used science to cross the greatest expanse of ocean on the planet. They amassed detailed and complex empiricial scientific data, based upon their observation and experience of the world around them. Those understandings and processes
are embedded in Māori tikanga, according to Māori astronomer, Professor Rangi Matamua .
“Despite colonial efforts to eradicate these systems, Māori have never let go of their traditional knowledge bases, much of which is environment-based,” says Professor Matamua. “In order to preserve the purpose and meaning of this knowledge, it was incorporated into religious practices, making science
“For the most part, that knowledge has been disrespected and looked upon as mumbo jumbo or myths and legends, while in contrast western perspectives were valued.”
However, new generations were now seeing recognition of an interface between traditional knowledge systems and western science.
Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation Board member Che Wilson believes the time is right to remember ancestral environmental practices such as observing stars, flora and fauna.
“That is how we gather the knowledge to help us better understand the science our tūpuna already knew,” Che said. “Everybody has tūpuna wisdom ingrained in them whether they realise it or not. It is the ability to observe the natural world and the changes that happen every few weeks, every month and every season.”
“If you were raised gardening, eeling or gathering kai with your parents it’s likely that they were following the moon, whether they knew it or not. Their parents more than likely told them ‘don’t do it at this time or that time’ and didn’t necessarily explain why.”
“Our tūpuna encoded that data into karakia, waiata and other forms of oral recall. Those who still live closely with the land, who are in the bush, those who fish, who hunt, have retained the memory of how to observe those signs. When we recognise that our tūpuna were scientists, that will take us all to a different place.”
Important ancestral observation points exist on Incorporation land, including Tuhi Ariki and Tohunga—both well-known places for surveying the stars, the sky, the wind and the ground below.
The challenge is not only to reinstate these observational skills, however, but also to develop a system for recording the information to build a contemporary knowledge base.
When we link back with the physical, the metaphysical then starts to reveal itself, Che says.
“When we have a strong relationship with the land, over time the land will start to teach us. If, as a result of that we become better land management practitioners, that just adds value to the bottom line.”
“For us, that bottom line is not just profit or loss: it includes our wairuatanga. If we can teach ourselves to talk to the land again, to talk to the river, then the river and the land will talk back to us and help replenish our wairua.”
Māori have always been willing to accept other forms of knowledge and incorporate them into wider belief systems, all the while connecting back to their own kaupapa.
“The approach has been inquiry and observation before incorporating that knowledge into our lives,” says Professor Matamua.
When farming practices become driven more by profit than by producing food for our own population, the connection to the environment becomes a moot point.
“It’s just about producing more. That’s a dangerous approach with negative impacts. Instead of working with the environment, we’re manipulating it to hold it at a constant,” he explains. “Adding fertilisers and phosphates to maintain productivity throughout the year and erase seasonality means that environmental indicators don’t mean anything to us. We’re not meant to eat like that. Our ancestors would rest the land, allow the goodness to come back.”
But in the past five years there has been an explosion of interest in re-
establishing some of the practices of indigenous knowledge systems.
“We are moving away from the theoretical to becoming operational in some spaces, where we’re now seeing real learning and benefit from observing such signs as the position of the sun, the stars, the flowering of trees, the arrival and departure of birds,” says Professor Matamua. “Planning activity according to environmentally-led triggers and observations is all part of a much bigger environmental mechanism recognised by Māori scientific practices.”
Many individuals and business organisations were moving to embed mātauranga Māori in corporate or personal values and practices, Professor Matamua said.
“They are noticing how traditional observation lines up with what they see in the environment and how that impacts their business. They are responding with activity such as planting by lunar phases, or meeting or organising events and workload according to lunar phases. There are potentially significant benefits for corporations to realign some of their practices back to the environment to become more sustainable and generate beneficial impacts on land, waterways and oceans.”
“ If you were raised gardening, eeling or gathering kai with your parents it’s likely that they were following the moon, whether they knew it or not.”
Professor Rangi Matamua
“Because our core customer base is hotels, restaurant and catering companies, business just ground to a total halt overnight,” explains Nick Archibald, owner of Foodchain. “Our delivery trucks were parked up and we had to send our staff home. It was awful.”
But just as quickly, Nick was calling his team back to work when a whole new revenue stream opened up –online orders to domestic customers.
“Normally individuals ordering online represents a very small part of our revenue, but it just took off from maybe one or two orders a week to up to 400 orders a day,” says Nick. “It was amazing really. And it meant our staff had work as we were classed as an essential service. We were back to business!”
The long-term impact of the Covid-19 global pandemic on the New Zealand economy is yet to be realised, but for ĀtihauWhanganui Incorporation’s strategic partner, Foodchain, the consequences of a Level 4 lockdown hit fast and hard.
Many of the new customers were from iwi groups across the country who were ensuring their people had what they needed while the lockdown was in place.
“They were making up food boxes and parcels for families whose wageearners had been laid off because of the lockdown which was great to hear,” says Nick. “It was heartwarming to see how people were looking after each other.”
Selling direct to home users and individuals was a totally new market for Foodchain, but one they intend to explore going forward.
“Once lockdown lifted, the online orders did slow, but the second lockdown at Alert Level 3 in Auckland saw it pick up again so
there is definitely an opportunity there,” explained Nick. “We want to streamline the online ordering process and provide payment functionality via the website. We are also developing new consumer offerings such as budget boxes that will feed a family of four for $100.
“While the Covid-19 virus has brought us a lot of challenges and uncertainty, it has also revealed some new ways of doing business and opportunities to develop a new customer base. The future is looking good!”
Nick’s experience is just one example of how consumers are finding new ways to buy the products they want.
“Our business partners are telling us that customers are buying
more online because they want to know where their meat and other food products come from, what’s the story behind them?”
says Andrew Beijeman, CEO of Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation.
“Our Awhi brand has an extremely compelling story so we are in a good position to maximise the potential this new way of grocery shopping has to offer.”
The Incorporation didn’t experience a slowing of domestic demand in New Zealand during the lockdown periods and found that demand actually increased offshore in the American markets. The business supplies prime beef under the Angus Pure brand to the US through its supply partner Broadleaf.
“Due to the pandemic, many of
“ Normally individuals ordering online represents a very small part of our revenue, but it just took off from maybe one or two orders a week to up to 400 orders a day.”
the established supply chains in the US were disrupted, triggering an increase in demand from other sources,” explains Andrew. “The desire to know where your food is coming from and the concept of food as medicine is also much more acute there than in New Zealand, which has also helped drive demand.”
“This is all good news for us as a business as it means we can hopefully see out this pandemic in pretty good shape.”
“ While the Covid-19 virus has brought us a lot of challenges and uncertainty, it has also revealed some new ways of doing business and opportunities to develop a new customer base. The future is looking good!”
Nick ArchibaldLeft: Nick Archibald: Owner of Foodchain. Above: The Foodchain website, www.foodchain.co.nz, saw an increase in visitors during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Nick Archibald
Keeping
A strategic objective to create work opportunities for uri is the driving force behind a review of ĀtihauWhanganui Incorporation’s procurement policy.
Photography by Christiane Te Riaki
“We want to be able to make sure we can engage the services of uri wherever possible,”explains Andrew Beijeman, CEO of ĀtihauWhanganui Inc. “Our current workforce of both permanent staff and contract suppliers is about 50 percent uri so there is plenty of room for this aspiration to grow.”
The first step for the organisation is to identify potential contractors so that when work becomes available, it knows who to ask.
“We know that there are whānau out there delivering high quality work but we don’t know who they are,” says Andrew. “We want to create a supplier database of uri so we know who to call.”
The database needs to encompass a wide range of businesses and services, from pest control to marketing, from farm support to painters, and everything in between!
“We have a lot of varied employment opportunities within the business, so please do get in touch with our office. Let us know who you are and what you do,” says Andrew. One person who can testify to the success of the policy is Jack Pue of Ruapehu Shearing Ltd, who began shearing on two of the Incorporation’s stations, Waipuna and Tohunga in 2011, and now has a team of 25 local people shearing more than 120,000 sheep on six Incorporation stations.
“I grew up around here, my family are Ngāti Rangi and Ngāti Uenuku and I worked on these stations as a
young fella docking and dagging,” remembers Jack. “Then I went away shearing in the UK, Norway and Australia and all over New Zealand for 10 years before coming home.
“Our family are shareholders and when I work on Ātihau-Whanganui whenua I really feel a connection with the place. You put your heart and soul into your work when you know you are on your own land, working for your own whānau and iwi.”
Although Jack works on farms all over the rohe, more than 60% of his work is for the Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation.
Jack has five children, and together with his partner Daphne, they are passionate about running their
business to give work to other families in the area.
“That’s really why I bought the shearing run in the first place, so I could do something that meant I could employ local people, my people,” he says. “This approach by Ātihau-Whanganui Inc to focus on giving work opportunities to uri is important and needs to be strengthened going forward.”
He encourages any local business to get themselves on the database, saying that the organisation is a great one to work for.
“There’s a real feeling of family when you come and work here,” he says. “You really feel like you are adding to the story of us all.”
“That’s really why I bought the shearing run in the first place, so I could do something that meant I could employ local people, my people”
Jack PueBelow: Jack Pue with his team from Ruapehu Shearing Ltd
“We’ve had a really good spring for the 2019/2020 season with a record year and crop, partly nature doing what nature does,” says Dan Adams, Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation Business Manager Apiary. “Our hives are strong and healthy producing around 76 tonne of highquality mānuka honey. Last year our average yield per hive was 11kgs, this year just over 31kg – an increase in both quality and volume.”
Selling for as much as $145/kg wholesale, this bumper season has kicked off the export programme to the USA market and Dan says the team are working hard to keep up with sales with another order being prepared for immediate shipment. And plans are afoot to extend the range of products within the Awhi Honey brand to help satisfy customer demand.
“Producing single source honey without feeding supplementary food like sugar syrup or artificial pollen is something commercial beekeepers can’t avoid,” says Dan. “Our vision is to do this less and less until our hives become naturally sustained in the same place all year round.”
“Currently our bees feed exclusively on mānuka, which only flowers for 4 - 6 weeks of the year, which isn’t enough.”
“In order to keep our hives producing for longer, we have started planting species like kōwhai and rewarewa, that flower and produce nectar and pollen at different times.”
“This will mean we can offer customers different honey types, depending on where the bees are collecting from.”
Another first for Awhi Honey is the production of rare organic honey.
“We are only one of two or three suppliers that can produce organically certified NZ mānuka honey which is a real step forward for our business,” says Dan. “It also commands a higher price because of its exclusivity.”
Awhi Mānuka honey is rated very highly for its medicinal qualities. The honey UMF (Unique Mānuka Factor) scale is from 0 - 30+ and most of the honey ĀtihauWhanganui Inc bees produce is at least 20+.
“This means that in international markets our 250g jar is not likely to be something consumers will just put on their toast. They will put it next to their first aid kit as it is regarded almost as a medicine in its own right,” explains Dan.
The honey business can be a volatile one, as the recent international
speculation around traces of the weed-killer glyphosate being found in NZ honey shows.
“We wanted to ensure that our honey wasn’t tainted, so we carried out testing of our most recent crops,” says Dan.
“We do use glyphosate in some small areas where we spray out grass to put in feed crops, so we can identify very accurately where we use this on our properties.”
“The testing came back negative so we can prove Awhi Honey is pure. This is something we are looking to leverage in our marketing.”
The Awhi Honey team of 11 beekeepers, who are predominantly uri or shareholders, are always on the look-out for finding and developing new team members.
“One of the initiatives in this area is taking on students from Ruapehu College who want to do work experience in the agri-business sector,” says Dan. “We want to create a pipeline of young local people that could potentially become part of what we do here.”
It’s a good thingthat the Awhi Honey bees have been busy in their hives as demand for their honey is at an all-time high.
“ The testing came back negative so we can prove Awhi Honey is pure.”
Dan Adams
A new project to analyse the use and productivity of Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation whenua is underway after receiving a $125k grant from Te Puni Kōkiri.
The pūtea came from the Whenua Māori Fund, which supports Māori landowners to explore different uses for their land and investigate ways of boosting its productivity. It also assists with developing applications for further funding from other bodies.
“The kaupapa behind the fund is to help Māori landowners identify and assess opportunities for their whenua,” says Andrew Beijeman, Ātihau-Whanganui Inc CEO. “We wanted to do a couple of things which fitted into the requirements of the fund, hence our application. We intend to complete an assessment of all the farmland across the whenua, analysing what its potential productivity is and determining what needs to happen for it to reach that potential.”
“For some of our low productive land, the research will also investigate what other potential activities it could be used for that may give us better results in terms of return on investment.”
“It is quite an exciting undertaking, and we are looking forward to seeing what new pathways may open up to us when the analysis is completed.”
This work represents one part of the project. The second element has more of an environmental focus and aims to establish indicators to accurately measure and monitor the impact any land use is having on the whenua and awa.
“It’s important to ensure any further productivity increases don’t come at the expense of the environment,” says Andrew. “This part of the project will look at what environmental indicators best serve the business and then establish a baseline of data, so we can see where we stand in this area.”
“Once that is in place we can develop monitoring protocols which will allow us to see where we may need to take action.”
“The responsibility of being the kaitiaki of our land for our tamariki and mokopuna is one we take very seriously and this phase of the project will really help us get an accurate picture of what is happening on our farms, and in the waterways.”
The third phase of the project will ask the question, what else could be done with the whenua outside the current scope. This project is a very high-level scan at this stage and will bring to the surface a number of ideas that could be explored further.
“While we do have a strategic objective to increase the productivity of our whenua-based business activities, it is important that any changes in land use are the right ones,” explains Andrew. “We need to ensure that they follow our Māori kaupapa in intent and execution, along with our core strategies.
“Once we have identified a list of
opportunities, we will then decide which ones to explore further, and in more detail.”
The project is a large undertaking and is expected to take the next eight months to complete. The support from TPK will also help identify other funding that the Incorporation may be eligible for, such as the Regional Growth Fund.
“Work like this is not just a standalone project,” says Andrew, “It’s all part of the journey we are on to always do better, to provide more, while taking better care of our whenua.”
“Recent world events have showed us that we can never be complacent about our place in the world; the markets we rely on and that success will just fall into our laps.”
“This work will help us forge a positive future for the organisation and our shareholders.”
“ Work like this is not just a standalone project... it’s all part of the journey we are on to always do better, to provide more, while taking better care of our whenua.”
Andrew Beijeman
All major organisations carry some level of debt, used to finance capital expenditure, investment opportunities and provide working capital when necessary.
But ensuring a business has the appropriate checks and balances in place is essential to keep the debt as a tool, not as a burden.
“It’s all about confidence,” says Tiwha Puketapu, Chair of ĀtihauWhanganui Incorporation’s Audit and Risk Committee (ARC). “In order to be able to grow our business by diversifying in alignment with our core business of farming, we need to have the money behind us to make decisions about the opportunities open to us.”
“But we need to have confidence that our debt levels are within the protocols we have in place internally, and, most importantly, our bank needs to have confidence in our ability to service the principal and the interest of any loan.”
And that confidence is strong, according to Rob Gemmell, the Incorporation’s agribusiness partner at BNZ.
“We have a longstanding relationship with Ātihau-Whanganui
Inc,” he says. “Governance boards over the years have taken a sensible and reasonable approach to debt, using it wisely, and we have always been comfortable with the financial position of the business.”
“The Incorporation has a strong balance sheet, sound financial performance and scores highly in the environmental, social and governance non-financial measures that form part of our risk assessment process.”
“Any concerns about the debt levels or debt management at ĀtihauWhanganui Inc would be raised with the Audit and Risk Committee promptly.”
Chair of Ātihau-Whanganui Inc, Mavis Mullins, acknowledges the close working relationship the business has with BNZ.
“Ensuring our borrowing is tied to specific growth strategies and projects maintains the clarity around the investment and future returns,” she says. “We also formulate a clear repayment strategy for any lending which is well-embedded into the business and any strategic decisionmaking.”
“I also acknowledge the work
undertaken by Tiwha and the ARC board in conjunction with Rob and BNZ that enables us to continue to grow and adapt as an organisation.”
“The clear message we receive from our banking partner BNZ is that they are happy with where we are currently and keen to help us with any financial support we may need to move our business forward,” says Tiwha. “Good governance and management has put Ātihau-Whanganui Inc into the best position possible, and we plan to build on those foundations as we look to the future.”
Using debt as a tool to facilitate the implementation of a strategic plan to ensure the success of a business for the future is nothing new.
confident’
“Ensuring our borrowing is tied to specific growth strategies and projects maintains the clarity around the investment and future returns,”
Mavis Mullins
Extreme sport scooter athlete V’Chay Hemopo has a mantra – ‘Never Quit, Commit’– and his dedication to his chosen sport proves it works!
The talents of this hard-working Marton 13-year-old have been on the extreme sport and youth culture radar since he was 10, when proud Dad, Ray (Ngāti Rangi, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi), posted a video on social media of his son riding at the local skate park. Someone suggested setting up a dedicated site to share more. Next minute, he was fielding sponsorship offers from international apparel brands and Kiwi scooter brand, Mozzi.
V’Chay is now the New Zealand representative for international extreme sport company MGP Action Sports AKA Madd Gear, along with some of the best riders in the world –
something he has wanted to be since he was five.
Known for his backflips, backflip whips and flair-180 backflip, he is followed on Instagram by nearly 3000 international fans and his street-wear clothing line, NQC, is proudly worn by scores of people, young and not-so, in New Zealand and Australia.
V’Chay was supported by Te Āti Hau Trust with a National Sports Grant, which helped him to compete in the NZ scooter nationals. Ranked no. 4 in NZ for his age at the 2019 nationals, at the 2020 nationals in January his performance electrified the arena, but he only placed sixth.
Mum Pania (also Ngāti Rangi, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi) said V’Chay was initially disheartened by the result but made a point of discovering the reasons for his placing.
“He learnt a lot from his second nationals, particularly about scoring,” Pania said. “In regional or district competitions, technical performance is everything but in the nationals it is worth only 20 percent, and many other competitive elements are judged. V’Chay is a determined kid. He has decided to work on those criteria over the year ahead and nail them at the next nationals.”
Scootering has joined the big time as a mainstream extreme sport, featuring in televised events like Nitro Circus and the X-Games, and drawing huge crowds at competitions like the World Roller Games and Extreme Barcelona. V’Chay has qualified for the past two years for international championships in Australia, the first year taking the family by surprise and this year’s qualification being put on hold by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Training, though, is never on hold. Every day, V’Chay can be found at the skate park in Marton, for which his family spearheaded a rebuild. With the help of fellow riders, they raised nearly half a million dollars for redevelopment and it re-opened in May last year, with V’Chay giving one of the opening speeches.
Outside of scootering, he’s a school athletics and cross-country champ, a self-taught pianist, and he has represented his school for the past three years in Lions Club speech competitions. On top of that, his brand NQC sponsors the Mental Health Foundation’s ‘Run for Health’ initiative in Wellington. If he plays the occasional game of Fortnite, that’s all fine with Mum.
“He works so hard and does his jobs. He deserves to have some down time. But he’s more likely to be encouraging kids to come out and ride,” she says.
Te Āti Hau Trust chair Shar Amner said the Trust is delighted to support athletic success.
“Our tamariki are succeeding in national and global sporting arenas,
and the Trust is pleased to celebrate their aspirations and achievements. When our people achieve their potential, they in turn can help their communities to grow.”
“Our tamariki are succeeding in national and global sporting arenas, and the Trust is pleased to celebrate their aspirations and achievements. When our people achieve their potential, they in turn can help their communities to grow.”
Shar AmnerBeing part of a shearing family has helped prepare Raetihi-raised Legacy Hiroti for the rigours of farming life.
Joining the Awhiwhenua cadetship programme in January of this year, Legacy has settled happily into the programme, despite the seven-week lockdown during the Alert Level 4 response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I had completed four years at Ruapehu College, but rather than returning for another year, I decided to do this programme because I really wanted to see whether or not farming was for me,” says Legacy.
Growing up with ĀtihauWhanganui Incorporation shareholders, grandparents Garth and Dionne Hiroti, Legacy Hiroti is valuing the opportunity of being a cadet.
“My grandfather owns a shearing contract so I’ve worked in shearing sheds most of my life,” she says. “I’ve enjoyed watching the shepherds doing the mustering and driving around on the farm motorbikes. It always seemed fun to me.”
“My cousin Hezakaya Metekingi had already joined the Awhiwhenua programme so I was able to team up with him and one other cadet, Keilani Filoa. Her mother moved the family to Waiouru after seeing the course advertised on Facebook.”
Legacy appreciates that the course provides a lot of hands-on experience.
“I can’t think of an easier way to be introduced to farming, especially in terms of practical experience where you learn on the job,” she reflects. “When we first started we were involved in fencing and working with the stock and now we have docking coming up soon, as well as shearing. It’s very physical but girls are more than capable of doing the work.”
“In fact, when you think about it, girls are good at farming because we have to think more about solutions rather than just use our physical strength.”
This practical work covers four days of the week with Wednesdays reserved for the theory part of the course. This means cadets graduate with qualifications in Level 3 and 4 National Certificate in Agriculture, and an understanding of the science around animal care, soil, their nutrients, and pasture management.
Based at Te Pā Station, Legacy has also travelled to work on other Ātihau-Whanganui Inc stations and for joint training sessions such as dog training, health and safety, and working around conveyer belts.
“My team is great to work with and the support I’ve had from my practical tutor, Brendon Craw, and theory tutor, Derek Priest, has been great too,” she says. “Awhiwhenua Kaiawhi, Nanny Olive Hawira, has helped us learn to live independently”.
Legacy has applied for a grant with the Te Ati Hau Trust to help with her course fees. She is thinking about her future, whether to carry on with another Awhiwhenua course, or go to work on a farm fulltime. Or, as suggested by her grandmother, go on to Lincoln Unversity.
“Going to university with this practical experience would definitely be beneficial and someday I would like to be a farm manager,” she says. “My koro said that it would be pretty good for me to become the CEO of Ātihau-Whanganui Inc, but I don’t mind just being a farm manager.”
“Girls are good at farming because we have to think more about solutions rather than just use our physical strength.”
Legacy Hiroti
This is the second article in our two-part series looking at the process of succession and what support is available to whānau.
When a shareholder passes on, their descendants must go through the Māori Land Court to succeed to their loved one’s Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation shares. The process –called succession – transfers shares in land from a person who has died to those whānau who are entitled to them.
Ātihau-Whanganui Inc’s Shareholder Engagement Officer, Jonelle Hiroti-Kinane, says succession can be an important factor in maintaining the connection between whānau and their whenua.
“Not only will they be able to receive the dividends they are entitled to, but it helps whānau to be part of a connected group of people, know the story of our ancestral land, and access grants and other opportunities such as shareholder hunts, information days and important events,” she adds.
Amiria Joseph-Wiari, Deputy Registrar at the Māori Land Court in Whanganui, says before embarking on the succession process, whānau can prepare by considering the following:
• Is this the first succession application relating to your loved one?
• When did your loved one pass away?
• Did your loved one leave a Will?
• Were Letters of Administration or Probate granted?
• If you are succeeding to the Māori land interests of one of your parents, is your other parent still alive and what is their role in your application?
• Are there whāngai children?
• Do you know the Māori land interests that you are succeeding to?
• Are there incorporation interests?
• Do you understand that when you file an application to succeed to your loved one, the application will apply to ALL the people who are entitled to succeed and not just you alone?
1. Once these questions are answered, the following information will also be needed:
2. List of Māori land interests to be succeeded to.
3. An original or certified copy of the death certificate.
4. An original or certified copy of the Will.
5. An original or certified copy of Probate or Letters of Administration.
6. The names and addresses (postal or email) of all those entitled to succeed.
7. Details for any of the people entitled to succeed who are whāngai, including how they whakapapa back to your loved one.
8. Whakapapa of your loved one including parents, siblings, marriages or unions and children from those unions.
With all this information at hand, an application form can be completed and signed. There are different forms, but Court staff are happy to advise which form is required. A fee of $60 is charged by the Court to file the application.
A succession application can be heard in any district requested by the applicant, and it is best if the applicant or another family member attends to confirm the information they have provided is true and correct.
Once an application is filed, you can expect to wait a minimum of three months for a court sitting. If the succession is straightforward, the time before the judge will usually be no more than 10 minutes. If the succession is complicated or contentious (for example, overturning a will or if whānau disagree about who is entitled to the shares) it can take longer for the court to make an order.
The Court process ends when a Court order is issued to those entitled to the shares and the Māori Land Court records are updated. Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation is also informed of the change and it will contact the new shareholders for their bank account details and to welcome them to the organisation.
Rangatahi Ezekiel Anderson is one to watch as he works towards his aspiration to run his own farm one day.
And his dedication and commitment have been recognised by his kaiwhakaako and mentors with a scholarship award from the Te Āti Hau Trust.
Ezekiel applied for the Awhiwhenua cadet training programme after getting a taste of what the farming life had to offer through a work experience placement, while attending Whanganui City College. Ezekiel says he knew straightaway that his future was working out on the land.
“I’m not an inside person at all,” he says. “I’ve always loved being outdoors, out in nature and the bush. So when I was offered a cadetship at Ahuwhenua I was made up. I enjoyed every minute of the apprenticeship.”
His potential was apparent very early on, and once he completed his cadetship with flying colours, he was offered a job as a shepherd by the Incorporation. He now has the responsibility of caring for 25,000 lambs at Ohotu Station, where they are sent to be finished for market after weaning.
He continued to impress with his focus and ability, and so was recommended for the agriculture scholarship worth $3,000.
“Ezekiel is an impressive young man and we wanted to help him continue his journey with us as he continues to learn and grow as a shepherd,” says Shar Amner, chair of the Te Āti Hau Trust. “This scholarship is one that is awarded purely on meritthere is no application process –which is an indication of how highly Ezekiel is regarded by those he works with.”
The scholarship was created a few years ago as a way of being able to encourage kaimahi to continue to learn and develop with a view of becoming a farm manager for the Incorporation one day.
“Ultimately, we would like to see our own people working our whenua for the benefit of future generations,” says Shar. “As a Trust, we support many different pathways our people follow to reach their aspirations and this award to Ezekiel is an example of that.
“Although the majority of our scholarships and grants do go towards educational achievement, we are keen for those who are taking a different route to success to know that we could offer them support, too.”
Ezekiel is proud to have been recognised for his hard work and say he wants to continue to gain more experience working on Incorporation stations.
“I would like to be a Head Shepherd one day, “ he muses. “But for now I’m going to keep on enjoying what I do and learning everything I can.”
Grant recognises former Awhiwhenua cadet’s future potential
“
Ezekiel is an impressive young man and we wanted to help him continue his journey with us as he continues to learn and grow as a shepherd.”
Shar Amner
