Ko Mātahi a te tau. He tohu, ko pihi mai he ao hōu, he ao hōu i te rewanga o Puanga, kua tau mai hoki a Pieke. Hei tohu whakamaharatanga ki a rātou kua whetūrangitia i te tau kua taha ake nei, rātou kua haere ki te ope o te rua Matariki hei whetū taukapo i ngā rangi. Ko tātou tēnei e takatū nei ki te tau hōu e hanatū nei. He tātai whetū ki te rangi mau tonu, mau tonu. He tātai tangata ki te whenua ngaro noa, ngaro noa. Hoki mai ki a tātou ngā uri makorea o rātou mā, tēnā rā tātou katoa.

Nāia te hau o mihi e rere arorangi atu ki a koutou ngā uri o Tahu Pōtiki e ponitaka nei i ngā ahi o ngā kāinga huri noa. Ko te manako ia e noho haumaru ana koutou i ngā tini āhuatanga o te wā. Mauri ora ki a koutou katoa e tai mā.

As you may be aware, in late April I announced that I will not be seeking re-election as the Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Representative for Kaikōura. I was always aware that my stance on supporting the victims of sexual abuse in my own community may come at a high price. My decision not to stand as the Representative of Kaikōura needs to be separated from my commitment to Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, to Ngāi Tahu Whānui and to all iwi aspirations that will assist our people to lead healthy and prosperous lives.

My focus going forward will be on changing outcomes for our whānau. I will continue to lead anti-abuse initiatives within all communities but particularly within our Ngāi Tahu communities.

I am particularly excited about a new project which is about to be launched in conjunction with Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu. Tu Pono – te mana kaha o te whānau – has been scheduled as a partnership approach alongside of a new pilot, the Integrated Service Response pilot which starts on 1 July in Christchurch. The response team will bring together Police, Child, Youth and Family, Corrections, health, specialist family violence NGOs and Māori service providers. The new approach will replace the Family Violence Interagency Response System (FVIARS).

What will follow is a collaborative programme which will develop and implement a partnership approach between whānau, hapū and iwi and specialist providers Whānau Ora Navigators within our communities throughout the Ngāi Tahu takiwā.

On 28 April, Te Puna Oranga presented me with some fantastic new resources to be launched at the 20 May symposium, Whakatōkia te Kākano o te Hā.

Education for our whānau will also remain a key priority for me. For some of our whānau it will be tertiary education, for some the after schools initiatives and for others it will be the practical programmes such as He Toki ki te Rika and Whenua Kura. 1200 students have now participated in the He Toki suite of programmes, including pre-trade and trade programmes.

Ninety-eight students have participated in the Whenua Kura suite of agricultural and horticultural training programmes since the commencement of Whenua Kura just under two years ago. This collaboration of education and industry has been of huge benefit to all the parties, not least of all our whānau.

Within the environmental arena we (the collective we) have some huge challenges as we tackle a future affected by climate change. Our debates of today about protecting mahinga kai resources and Te Mana o te Wai are going to continue well into the future. As a member of the governance board for Pure Advantage and also the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge I am privileged to take part in some very real strategic initiatives which will be of benefit to the hapū and marae of tomorrow.

Many of these types of initiatives were also raised and discussed at Iwi Chairs Forum in Rotorua and at the Te Waka a Māui hui the preceding day. Our challenges are the same challenges that are experienced by other iwi. I was delighted that the iwi of Te Waka a Māui came with Ngāi Tahu to the national forum as one.

In April, I spoke at the celebration of the completion of the Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Addington housing project. This is an iwi-led project completed in partnership with the Rātā Foundation and Te Puni Kōkiri. These projects take considerable effort.

I want to thank Arihia and our partners for bringing this project to a conclusion, but as always there is more to be done. The project is the beginning of a much greater focus on housing initiatives for our whānau. It is our long-term plan to look at housing throughout the takiwā. We want to grow and expand on potential housing initiatives, with a focus on supporting whānau to achieve home ownership.

Mark.