A Monthly Newsletter of Kāi Tahu news, views and events.
Recently, the insulation team at Awarua Synergy Ltd achieved a great milestone, installing insulation in over 5000 homes in Murihiku.
Awarua Synergy Ltd worked in partnership with the Borland Lodge and Education Trust and Venture Southland to complete one of the region’s largest Solar PV systems at Borland Lodge. [Read more…]
On Friday 30 October, a number of primary and intermediate tauira kapa haka rōpū around Murihiku took to the stage at Southland Stadium. Whānau and friends were on hand to tautoko the tamariki as they performed at Ngā Pūtangitangi.
The rūnanga would like to congratulate and acknowledge the performers of both the teina and tuakana rōpū who represented the Bluff Community School alongside their kaiako, Paddy Daintith and Kylie Lawson. The group had been practising at Te Rau Aroha Marae since August. [Read more…]
All members are welcome to attend Te Rūnanga o Awarua on Sunday 6 December at 10am at Te Rau Aroha Marae.
On a windy, cold spring day, the Bluff Coastguards launched their new rescue boat. The day started with a viewing of the new boat at 9am, followed by a pōwhiri and lunch for the manuhiri at Te Rau Aroha Marae.
After lunch, the official opening and blessing took place, and during this segment Tā Tipene O’Regan spoke on behalf of the Awarua community. [Read more…]
To all our whānau suffering the loss of loved ones at this time, Awarua Rūnanga extends all our love and sympathy.
Happy birthday to everyone celebrating a birthday this month.
Wow, didn’t the All Blacks do New Zealand proud at this year’s tournament? They received support from young and old alike and to prove this, the tamariki, kaiako and kaimahi prepared a ‘Go All Blacks’ sign which they hung on their fence the week prior to the finals.
Our office will be closing on Friday 18 December and will re-open on Monday 18 January 2016.
If members have an item of interest they wish to share with Ngāi Tahu whānau please contact Tina on 03 212 6029 or email [email protected]
We are constantly updating our membership database and have found that many members’ children have had children of their own who 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).
NB: If your enquiries relate to registering with Ngāi Tahu please contact the Whakapapa Unit on 0800 524 8248.
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.
In early September, Huhana (Sue) Mason visited Bluff on whānau business. During this visit she arranged to meet with Dean Whaanga and Bubba Thompson to return a toki that her grandmother, Pearl Mason found in 1955 under the tool shed in their back yard on Marine Parade, Bluff.
Dean and Bubba were more than happy that the taonga had been returned after many years away. [Read more…]
Te Rau Aroha Marae will be holding a Christmas dinner for Bluff senior citizens on Wednesday 2 December at 12.30pm. Entertainment will be provided by the Bluff Community School kapa haka group.
If you live in Bluff and would like to come along and catch up with your friends, share some festive fare and entertainment, please contact Jacqui or Sharon on: 212 7205 by 23 November to confirm your attendance for catering purposes as numbers are limited.
Belated congratulations to Mariana Pagan, daughter of Elaine and Bruce Pagan (formerly of Bluff), who graduated from the University of Otago with a Bachelor of Surveying with credit. Mariana is currently employed as a graduate surveyor with CKL Hamilton.
The photo supplied by Mariana shows her wearing the Awarua korowai that she wore to the Māori pre-graduation and the official graduation ceremonies. [Read more…]
To all our whānau suffering the loss of loved ones at this time Awarua Rūnanga extends our love and sympathy.
Happy birthday to everyone celebrating birthdays this month.
Located on the grounds of Te Rau Aroha Marae and overlooking Bluff Harbour, Awarua Rūnanga has the southern-most marae-based bi-lingual early childhood education centre. The centre is staffed with three fully-trained kaiako (bachelor of teaching endorsed in early childhood education) and two experienced kaiāwhina (one is in their second year of early childhood education training).
The staff and management committee are dedicated and passionate about providing high quality programmes that build and extend tamariki learning and confidence. Their unique local curriculum is based on Te Ao Māori and affirms the tamariki heritage and language.
The centre is open from 8.30am-5pm Monday to Friday and is open to tamariki aged from three months to five-years. The centre offers kura kaupapa i mua (a bicultural before school programme) for three and a half to five-year-olds, on Mondays and Thursdays. Centre closures are for three weeks over the Christmas period and statutory days.
If you are looking for childcare that provides a caring and culturally stimulating environment then contact the centre’s kairuruku/coordinator, Trish Kerr on: 022128866 or text: 0273888266; or email: [email protected] to find out more about the 20 free hours for over three-year-olds and enrolment.
Te Rau Aroha Marae will be holding a Christmas dinner for Bluff senior citizens on Wednesday 2 December at 12.30pm. Entertainment will be provided by the Bluff Community School kapa haka group.
If you live in Bluff and would like to come along and catch up with your friends, share some festive fare and entertainment, please contact Jacqui or Sharon on: 212 7205 by 23 November to confirm your attendance for catering purposes as numbers are limited.
Pānui contributions
If members have an item they wish to share with te whānau o Ngāi Tahu please contact Tina on: 03 212 6029 or email: [email protected]
We are constantly updating our membership database and have found that many members’ children have had children of their own who need to be registered. 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. NB: If your enquiries relate to registering with Ngāi Tahu please contact the Whakapapa Unit on 0800 KAI TAHU (0800 524 8248).
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.
Last month, Gail Thompson one of our korowai weavers, was successful in receiving approval for cultural materials from Otago’s komiti Taoka Tuku Iho.
Gail intends to incorporate the albatross feathers in her whānau korowai that she is hoping to complete in time for the weaving graduation in May 2016. [Read more…]
Wednesday 22 July, saw the launching of a series of books at Te Rau Aroha Marae on stories illustrated in art work around the wharekai.
The stories, Kā Roimata, Tama Rereti, Battle of the Birds and Tunaroa have been retold by Bubba Thompson in English and Māori, in collaboration with Henare Manawatu, Paulette Tamati-Elliffe and Charisma Rangipunga.
Members of the Ministry of Education, Papatipu Rūnanga and students and teachers from Bluff Community School attended the launch, which was then followed by the gifting of the publications to the schools’ six class representatives, Justis Heron (Takahē), Lachlan Ferguson (Tūī), Ryder Kapene (Weka), Aurora Metzger (Kererū), Mercedes Akuhata (Pukeho) and Vana Savage (Kākāpō). [Read more…]
Late last year, Te Kākano nurse-led clinics began at Te Rūnaka o Awarua where the health kaupapa is driven by the local community.
The clinics come under the umbrella of Awarua Whānau Services and are delivered in our community by Nadine Goldsmith of Ngāi Tahu descent who affiliates to Moeraki and Arowhenua.
Nadine is married to Paddy Daintith from the Bradshaw whānau. She has 16 years’ experience as a registered nurse and has previously worked in paediatrics in Australia. On her return to New Zealand in 2005, Nadine was a nursing tutor at Southern Institute of Technology. [Read more…]
Thanks to Te Rūnanga o Awarua for securing funding from the Ngāi Tahu Fund for the korowai weaving wānanga that was held at Te Rau Aroha Marae in late June.
Korowai weaving tutor Maata McManus from Ngaruawahia provided the tuition for some very eager students. Maata brought with her, experienced helpers Annie Rewharewha and mokopuna, Aaaliyah and Jayden Abraham.
Our first wānanga saw two students start on their whānau korowai and 22 students started the journey with a short korowai. [Read more…]
To all our whānau, suffering the loss of loved ones at this time Awarua Rūnanga extends all our love and sympathy.
Happy birthday to all of you celebrating birthdays this month.
In the mid-1980s, Uncle Harold Ashwell and Uncle George Ryan facilitated a programme to identify and protect customary fishing areas of significance around the Tītī Islands. Thirty-four areas were identified, focusing primarily on pāua and kina gathering areas.
These areas were to be closed to commercial fishers by regulation, however this did not happen given the lack of Governmental interest in facilitating such outcomes in the 1980s. This resulted in a ‘gentlemen’s agreement with commercial fishers not to fish these areas. Unfortunately this agreement was ignored over subsequent years.
From the late 1990s, onwards birders made constant requests for the Office of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu to complete the work of George and Harold to protect these key customary fisheries for birding whānau. The work to enact these regulations was initiated by the Customary Fisheries Unit in the late 1990s and this work was continued by Kaupapa Taiao, Toitū Te Whenua and most recently by Tribal Interests.
In March, the Minister for Primary Industries approved the establishment of special commercial fishing closures for thirty-one areas around the Tītī Islands (three of the original 34 areas identified for protection were protected using Mātaitai Reserves in July 2010).
The new regulations were approved by Cabinet in June and came into force in July. If you wish to obtain a copy of the maps and documentation these closures cover you can contact members of the Rakiura Tītī Island (Beneficial Islands) Committee or members of Rakiura Tītī Islands Administering Body (Crown Islands).
We are constantly updating our membership database and have found that many members’ children have had children of their own who require registering. If you are one of these people we encourage you to contact us on at the office to request a form/s.
NB: If your enquiries relate to registering with Ngāi Tahu please contact the Whakapapa Unit on: 0800 524 8248.
We also encourage those members who have changed residential or email addresses to update their details by contacting the rūnanga on 03 212 6029/027 525 7055; or email [email protected]
If members have an item of interest that they wish to share with te whānau o Ngāi Tahu please contact Tina Mitchell.
Kia ora e te whānau, welcome back to all those mutton birders who are now home on the mainland after a not so good birding season but one where they had time to connect with, appreciate and enjoy, their ancestral ties to the whenua.
The month of May saw a number of positive activities in Bluff, namely the Bluff Oyster Festival. Prior to the Festival a community group, the Bluff 2024 Urban Rejuvenation Group, made up of Te Rūnanga o Awarua affiliates and locals had been busy beautifying the entrance to Bluff with landscaping, signage and a mosaic quotation on a wall in the township. [Read more…]
Kia ora e te whānau, welcome back to all those mutton birders who are now home on the mainland after a not so good birding season but one where they had time to connect with, appreciate and enjoy, their ancestral ties to the whenua. [Read more…]
To all our whānau, suffering the loss of loved ones at this time Awarua Rūnanga extends all our love and sympathy.
Happy birthday to all of you celebrating birthdays this month.
If members have an item of interest that they wish to share with te whānau o Ngāi Tahu please contact Tina on 03 212 6029 or email [email protected] [Read more…]
After many years of being dormant, the Port Softball Club entered three teams in the local Southland tee-ball competition. These teams were the tio’s U7 team and two U9 teams, the tītī’s and the taniwha’s. [Read more…]
Bluff’s Te Rau Aroha Marae is getting its very own wind turbine, thought to be a first for New Zealand.
“We wanted to support (Awarua Synergy) and put our money where our mouth is”, Te Rūnaka o Awarua Chair Hana Morgan said.
Owned by Te Rūnaka o Awarua, Awarua Synergy specialises in efficient energy solutions for homes, farms and businesses in Southland. [Read more…]
Nadine Goldsmith (Registered Nurse) will be holding clinics at the rūnanga office, 12 Bradshaw Street Bluff, on Monday 18 May from 2pm to 8pm and Monday 22June from 10am to 4pm.
No appointment is necessary, however if you would like to contact Nadine beforehand please ring Awarua Whānau Services on 03 218 6668.
Members are invited to attend bi-monthly meetings at Te Rau Aroha Marae at 6pm on the following dates: 8 June, 12 August and 14 October.