Ki kā mate o tēnei wā, haere, haere, haere atu rā. Huri noa ki te huka ora, tēnā koutou katoa. Well whānau, we had a wonderful whakawhanauka night back in mid-May, with two important kaumātua. Tāua Jane Davis and Pōua Trevor Howse who both travelled from Te Waipounamu as part of a contingent for the 20th year celebrations of the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu land settlement with us. Although Tā Mark and Matua Kukupa Tirikatene were also scheduled to attend, Auckland’s traffic conspired against us. We were however, very lucky to have deputy kaiwhakahaere Lisa Tumahai, grace us with her presence.
To all the others who came up from Te Waipounamu including Marcia Te Au-Thompson and all those from Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, we offer our sincere thanks for helping to make the evening a most enjoyable one. Coming up for our Taurahere Group is the annual Kīngitanga celebrations in August. Each year our group supports the Kāi Tahu contingent who go on to Tūrangawaewae Marae.
There will be opportunities to catch up with whanauka from down south and for a whakapapa hui before this event.
If you are not already on our Waikato Taurahere Group mailing list, please email [email protected] with your name, mobile/home phone number and contact details. We will make sure that you are kept upto-date with names of the places and times that we will be meeting during this important period for our rōpū, and also for other hui after that. We would love to see you at one of our upcoming events. Kaua e whakamā whānau. Nau mai haere mai.
Lastly, one of our kōmiti, Steven, recently had the opportunity to attend a Kāi Tahu ki Tāmaki Makaurau komiti hui to celebrate Matua Kukupa Tirikatene who back at the beginning of this year was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year’s Honours list.
It was an amazing evening with many wonderful speeches and beautiful waiata that honoured Kukupa and his hoa rakatira Heather – ka mau te wehi. We also thank our whanauka in the Tāmaki Makaurau Taurahere komiti for giving Steven the opportunity to attend. We look forward to continuing to develop our relationship with the Tāmaki Makaurau komiti and our whanauka just over the Bombay Hills. Anyway whānau, keep warm during this winter period, wherever you are. Mauri ora. Nā Steven Kent.