Taurikura Anamata: Flourishing Future
When I first started at Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa, I was a senior communications advisor in the organisation’s large-scale pest-eradication project, Korehāhā Whakahau.
A compound term, the name was given by the late Ngāti Awa kaumātua Te Kei o Te Waka Merito. Kore to mean without or lack of, haha to mean out of breath or empty; and whakahau to mean to command or imperative. Therefore, the name references a strategic restoration or revitalisation.
I was filling in for maternity cover, and after having my own new baby who you might have been introduced to in the first chapter of this blog series, I needed that kind of restoration myself.
The goal of the project is to eradicate possums from 4000ha in the Whakatāne rohe. And a key objective is to build the capacity and capability of Ngāti Awa to be kaitiaki.
So, absolutely, a project that I could sweep in behind with my strategic communication skills. And as their communication specialist, my first task for Korehāhā Whakahau was to implement the plans for a wānanga supported by Predator Free 2050 Limited.
My predecessor had applied for funding for the wānanga from the company, a partner in the Korehāhā Whakahau project, to support the development of genuine treaty partnerships in the predator free space. A wānanga called Taurikura Anamata, or a flourishing future.
However, rather than looking to lecture on how to do iwi engagement, the idea was to invite the other 16 large-scale eradication projects in the company’s stable to attend the wānanga with representatives from their mana whenua. In turn, we would provide a safe place for us all to have conversations regarding iwi engagement – no matter how deep, inane or even borderline contentious.
But when you offer this kind of premise, the event management needs to be bespoke, and spot on. It needs to be people-oriented and a lot of one-on-one.
This meant I had to engage with 16 other eradication projects – where they had varying levels of relationship with the mana whenua in their area – and help reach out to the iwi of their rohe and invite them if they wanted to come. But I also had to make sure that it sounded like a place where you could come and just be yourself – tangata whenua, tangata kē rānei.
As a two-day wānanga, it also meant ensuring teams flying out of regional Aotearoa – Kaitaia, Taranaki, Gisborne and the like – into Rotorua or Tauranga could get to Whakatāne at an appropriate time, and then back out. And they had accommodation.
It meant organising a pōhiri around these complexities and ensuring that everything was in place to support such an undertaking from the catering to online services, from registration packs to buses for the field trips on day two. And, it meant liaising with the team at the Predato Free 2050 Limited so that they knew everything going on and could be where they needed to be to support.
But more than that – it meant finding guest speakers and filling an itinerary with opportunities to create that safe place for those big conversations. And it meant that it all had to be delivered with the values of manaakitanga, whanaungatanga and Ngāti Awatanga.
It meant that rather than employing processes and automation, it had to be bespoke, and I had to become the central point.
And for these aspects, I am grateful to the Korehāhā Whakahau team who leaned in and helped me in all the spaces – particularly when the worst-case scenario happened and I was in hospital post emergency operation for day one.
I am grateful to the team at Predator Free 2050 Limited, who no matter what we put on the table they always came with the same of level of energy and commitment. Ki ngā kaimahi me ngā rangatira o Predator Free 2050 Limited, he tino Tangata Tiriti koutou. E kore e mimiti te aroha mō tā koutou tautoko nui ki a Ngāti Awa i tēnei kaupapa whakahirahira.
And a special mention to Stuart Attwood, who produced this wonderful video and also shot a gallery of photos of the wānanga. With so much to do, there was no way I could be on the tools to document the wānanga and so I am especially grateful to him as someone who knows the power of storytelling.
Please take a watch of his video and see what he created to tell the story of Taurikura Anamata, but also think about all the little details that went into pulling it together and know that here at Tū Mai Te Toki we understand that communications is not just as simple as writing a blog post.
