Marae
Our focus to support and progress the marae with our māra kai beds has finally come to fruition! It was brilliant timing having the nurseries available with our supply of plants for the Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu kaimahi visit. We hope the team who chose to come out enjoyed their visit, I thoroughly appreciated their time helping with our spring plantings and the beginnings of us becoming even more sustainable. The plants came through a māra kai fund provided by Te Puni Kōkiri. I can now finally provide a report to show we are well on the way to making our marae more sustainable. The programme of encouraging small work activities with our rōpū has been welcomed with groups seeing the marae beginning to flourish and very much looking forward to being fully available to assist.
We have hosted a number of rōpū receiving their cultural professional development and board meetings over the month. All were well provided for with kai Māori specially requested through our preferred caterer for their lunch – as well as humble offerings of the first catch of the West Coast whitebait caught and cooked by Richard for those who jumped on the bus to Rāpaki from Ngāi Tahu. A very enjoyable day. As part of our environment and the building of the new wharekai we are now at the point where bookings may be affected due to the works taking place. We may therefore have to cancel some bookings – this will be decided on a case by case basis dependent on requirements.
Health
Christina Henderson is consistent with her reporting and providing multiple opportunities for the hapū to engage in kaupapa run through this portfolio. I recently attended both a Health Day and Waitaha Mokopuna Ora Day. There are multiple focuses Christina introduced through the year and her recent ones include mental health, kaumātua health and diabetes.
Tautoko
It was a pleasure to have Nathan Tikao in the office recently speaking about ‘He Rau Maharataka Whenua – A Memory of Land’, an exhibition he had just opened at the Christchurch Art Gallery. Please take the time to go and enjoy the exhibit.
It was also a pleasure to have met Kiri Howell from Whai Rawa who gave a very insightful and up-to-date informative kōrero around Whai Rawa. Kiri is more than happy to arrange a further in depth discussion if members would like to hear more.
Kaimahi with the completed māra kai bed.
Kaimahi gather in front of Wheke in preparation for gardening.