POU TUAWHĀ

4.1 30 Years of Deed of Settlement celebration event

On 23 September 2022, iwi, the Māori fisheries sector and Government Ministers gathered to mark 30 years of the Māori Fisheries Settlement This special event was given the name Rukutohorā which symbolised the long breath required to dive deep into the oceans It was a day to reflect on this auspicious milestone With kōrero from Dr Rangi Matamua, panel discussions from previous Directors on how it all began and thoughts shared by rangatahi about where we are going, we set about celebrating the unique position occupied by Māori fisheries to be leaders in balancing our responsibility to te taiao on behalf of future generations and our commercial interests for the benefit of te iwi Māori

As part of our 30 year anniversary celebration, we also commissioned the production of a feature documentary to capture the story of this historic settlement Featuring reflections of our kaumātua such as Tā Tipene O’Regan and Dame Naida Glavish who were involved in the early years to those rangatira who navigated through the post-settlement challenges in allocating the settlement, this documentary will be a legacy piece that will preserve fishing as an intrinsic part of Māori identity

We premiered a short teaser at Rukutohorā and expect production on the feature documentary to start in 2023 We have been working closely with Moana New Zealand, and have engaged Māori filmmakers Julian and Becs Arahanga from Awa Films and Toby Mills of Tawera Productions to produce this film