her identity, confirmed by a piece of paper discovered in the incorporation’s files by Ātihau Administrator Keri Browning. It showed her name, Aroha Brooks, had been struck out and replaced with Aroha Church. Aroha credits Keri with making it all come together and says her help and enthusiasm made the whole process much easier. “I wasn’t even going to bother. I thought I was never going to be able to prove it. But with my stuff that I sent her and her hard work and research, she found it all.” Aroha is thrilled to be reconnected with her Ātihau roots but wonders how many others like her are out there. “There must be others who don’t know how to go about it or don’t even know they have dividends owing.” Two other wāhine have also recently reconnected with Ātihau, reclaiming their whakapapa links as well as their dividends. Pikiwai Hurinui-Te Maro, who lives in Hastings, says finding out about her unclaimed pūtea was “ just a shock.” She and her sister inherited their shares from their kuia, Noema Hirini, but Pikiwai said they never really bothered following up because the last time they received their dividends − at least 20 years ago − it was hardly worth claiming. “It wasn’t worth sending out; I think the stamp was worth more than the cheque,” she says. “The last we heard it was all just in gorse.” But a twist of fate brought them back into the loop. A friend, who was also a shareholder, had passed away. Her 30
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son’s father, who was helping with the paperwork, had seen the list and called her. “He said ‘I think you need to ring these people’ so the next day I got on the phone, and what a lovely surprise!” Pikiwai is very happy to be reconnected to the Ātihau whānau and now regularly receives the pānui which keep her and her whānau, including her three tamariki, up-todate. “It’s good to know what’s happening now; I thought it was cool after all these years.” But for Wellington’s Steph Osborne, the unclaimed dividends only came after making enquiries about an Ātihau education scholarship, when Keri asked her if she knew she had money sitting there.
“I should have known, my mum (Mary Phillips) used to collect it but it was the last thing on my mind,” says Steph. She had been living in Australia but came home in late 2015, and this year will complete her Masters in Business Administration majoring in technology, hence the initial scholarship application. Steph says she is really impressed with the financial support the incorporation makes available to the Ātihau whānau and how supportive the staff are, especially after also securing a significant grant to help upgrade their papakāinga at Pipiriki. “It made me realise how relevant our whakapapa is for all the shareholders, and nothing is too hard for those ladies in the office; they make it simple.