Breaking the glass ceiling - Ann Waitai

Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation Chair Mavis Mullins knows a thing or two about paving the way for women in the world of farming. The first woman to lead the incorporation, one of the biggest farming businesses in Aotearoa, has utmost admiration for Ann Waitai, the first female elected to the incorporation’s Committee of Management.

“Back then, they were all farmers on the board. Ann’s not a farmer – she’s the first to say that. In those times, having a woman on the board was unheard of. Even today, it’s still nowhere near the norm,” says Mavis.

“In those days, if you were a board member you became a farm consultant. You took on the responsibility of a property, so Ann had to go and learn everything. When you think about the technicalities of farming – stock classes, seasonal variations, feed budgets, climate, etc., – Ann had to step into that world and make it hers.” That takes some courage, Mavis says, with frank admiration.

“When you’re being voted onto these entities, our people still have a cultural hierarchy. I think about how much she would have had to overcome. Talk to her now and she says she made a lot of mistakes, made some friends, made some enemies but she learnt fast.”

“She was prepared to front up and grow her own capability in a world that wasn’t her natural world.”

“Her appointment was probably one of the first steps to the Incorporation understanding farming as a business, as opposed to farming as a farmer.” The board chair has always appreciated Ann’s forthright approach and rock-solid support. “Ann has always been very supportive of me and my role. She’s not scared to give you a clip around the ears, not scared to acknowledge if you did well. She’s straight up. You’re never going to die guessing what she’s thinking,” Mavis acknowledges, wryly.

Purposeful, organised, dedicated and never one to mince her words, Ann was keenly interested in the challenges facing ĀtihauWhanganui Inc. She set her sights on getting onto the board in the early 90s, determined to do what she could to help in the battle to wrestle back control of the Ātihau lands.

Orphaned in 1949 at the age of five, Ann was sent through her connections to Ngāti Hau to the Sisters of Compassion at the convent in Hiruhārama, Jerusalem. Her time there is remembered fondly. “My mother died of TB. I was brought up in Jerusalem with the nuns at the convent until I turned 10,” Ann says. “I loved it. I loved it so much. I would go to my Aunty Wehi Wallace and Uncle Tom. When I saw Uncle Tom walking down to the river, I knew he would be getting into his big, long waka and going over to Tāwhitinui. I used to run away from school at the convent, calling out ‘wait for me, wait for me!’ You’ve got to go back, he’d tell me, but I’d say, no – I’m coming with you! He used to pick fruit over there. The trees were loaded with big apples, pears and nectarines.”

Kingi Topia’s son Māngai Jim Kingi – whānau of the Topia Tūroa line and Patutokotoko – and Jim’s wife Kath fostered Ann and she became a pā girl, spending her later childhood and her early adulthood at Rātana Pā. Jim was involved with the Māori Land Court and various incorporations, and she grew up aware of their purpose and functions, even benefiting with an occasional grant. “In those days you might get five pounds – that used to buy my uniform.”

She built on her childhood understanding and experience of the incorporations as a keen attendee at Ātihau-Whanganui and Morikau annual general meetings, and became increasingly interested in their work, challenges and progress. She moved with her family from Rātana Pā to Lower Hutt and then Gisborne, periodically returning for incorporation meetings. The decision to stand for a seat on one of the boards was made with a view to applying more of a business focus to the incorporation’s operations, she says. She had gained industry and government experience during her time in Wellington at the Ford Motor Company, where she worked her way up ‘from scratch to cashier’, then at Steel and Tube, the tax department and Māori Affairs, where she was a coordinator for the business development scheme Mana Enterprise.

Once on the board, it was a steep and swift learning curve. She was back from Gisborne every weekend to review documentation – ‘thousands of papers’ – at chair Robin Murphy-Peehi’s home at Tirorangi. Some of the history made sad and frustrating reading, and early board members would have found themselves between a rock and a hard place, Ann says. “Our board members’ hands were tied because when the lands were given back to them they had no control over the leases. The government had thrown at them: here’s the land, it’s all under leases that have been altered to 99 years, you don’t control it and you can’t do anything about it.

The resumption programme was well underway when Ann joined the board, with multiple farm leases returned. Although each resumption was a milestone to be celebrated, there was also continued frustration.

“They had to keep buying back the land, buying back the stock and the houses – over a million dollars each time. It was frustration after frustration. The worst part was if we wanted our land back under our control, we just had to sit there and bear it.”

The resumption strategy was and continues to be an expensive, painstaking and methodical approach, and a test of patience, tenacity and perseverance with the wellbeing of future generations in mind.

“Shareholders were happy to get the land back, that I do know,” Ann says. Of her three years with the board, she says: “I can only say I will never, ever meet a board like that again. The men of those days were real gentlemen. They came from the days where respect and mana was important. I can honestly say I learnt a lot from all of them.”

She has nothing but praise for the incorporation’s first female chair – “I’ve supported her from the time she got in because I knew she had the vision to take it forward” – but she hopes boards over the next 50 years will prioritise eliminating debt and borrowing. She would also like to see new land use ventures.

“I’d like to see not only a profitable farming business but new business ventures … market gardens, rongoā, tourism … you can do with it what you want. And I would love to see our people housed: I would love to see our people walk out of their house and go straight to mahi on the lands.”

“I know it can work for our people. This land can be whatever we want it to be. I think our people have suffered and gone without enough that they should be entitled to having those houses built for them, mahi for them, food to eat, education for our children. The land and the river can be everything for them.”