Ngā mate

Ka mihi aroha – the whānau of Te Rūnanga o Awarua would like to extend our condolences and sympathies to the Wixon whānau on the sudden passing away of John Francis Wixon on Poutama, his much loved Muttonbird Island, on 12 May.

Ui mai koe ki ahau, ‘He aha te mea nui o te ao?’ Māku e kī atu. He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
If you were to ask me,‘What is the most important thing in the world?’ I would tell you. It is people, it is people, it is people.

Queen’s Birthday honours

Congratulations to Brenda Donovan, one of our kaimahi volunteers at Te Rau Aroha Marae, for being recognised and awarded a Queen’s Services Medal for her services to seafarers.

Brenda’s involvement with seafarers goes back to when she first joined the Southland Merchant Navy Centre in 1963. She was president of the Ladies Guild until it disbanded in 1981 and since then has served as a board member of the Bluff Seafarers’ Centre, which provides services to seafarers, including drop-in centres, chaplaincy and referrals to other agencies. Ka tau kē.

Congratulations also to Riki Cherrington who has been awarded an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to Māori and education.

During his 50-plus years in Murihiku, Riki has helped to establish an urban marae for Ngā Iwi Katoa in Invercargill. He has supported the construction of a Whare Tupuna at Murihiku Marae and helped establish the Kōhanga Reo on the grounds of Invercargill’s Basilica and its successful conversion into Te Tōmairangi Marae.

Riki has been the kaumātua at the University of Otago Southland Campus since 1999 and has been a teacher and kaumātua of Māori Studies at the Southern Institute of Technology since 1995. He also helped establish a relationship between Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and the Southern Institute of Technology and he was involved in delivering te reo and tikanga programmes at Invercargill Prison. That’s a very big kete of giving. Koia kei a koe.

Rangatahi Tumeke April camp

Tēnā tātou katoa. We held our first Rangatahi Tumeke camp at Te Ākau Tai Toka in April. We stayed at Tautuku Lodge and welcomed twelve rangatahi to the camp.

The weather was good and we were able to get out an about to gather mahinga kai and explore some places on the coast. Around 10 adults also helped out over the four days. He mihi nunui ki a koutou mō te tautoko me te āwhina i tēnei kaupapa. We were able to go spearing for flounder, trout fishing and catching wai kōura and also waka ama in the estuary, at Waikawa.

On our visit to the Cathedral Caves the rangatahi provided the tourists with a spur-of-the-moment haka and waiata. Ka mau te wehi rangatahi mā. An awesome time was had by all.

We welcome whānau from near and far, so have a think about the holidays and waea mai whānau. Don’t delay numbers are filling fast. Look forward to hearing from you in the near future. We have an assortment of equipment that is available to loan to rangatahi.
A Facebook page for viewing pictures of past camps is under the name of Rangatahi Tumeke. We look forward to meeting with you on future camp. Tihei mauri ora, Steph Blair.

‘Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari ia ko taku toa he toa takitini e.’

Pānui contributions

If members wish to have an item of interest they wish to share with te whānau o Ngāi Tahu please contact Tina on 03 212 6029 or email [email protected]

Membership database

We are currently updating our membership database and have found that many members’ children have had children of their own that require registering. If you are one of these people we encourage you to contact us on 03 212 6029 or email [email protected] to request registration form/s. We also encourage those members who have changed residential or email addresses, to update their details by contacting the rūnanga on the above number or email address.