The mana of Ngāti Waewae: Gaining representation for Māori

Thursday, 7 January 2021

JOANNE NAISH discovers how West Coast rūnanga ensured Māori had a voice on all four of the region's councils.

Gaining representation for Māori was not an easy task – for Francois Tumahai it took perseverance and standing up to racism.

“It was just me being a bull around the district until they listened. It just takes time for people to understand,” he says.

Once the barriers start breaking down, everyone realises they all want the same thing in the end – and “that we're not scary people”.

When Tumahai took over as chairman of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Waewae in 2008 it was $105,000 in debt.

**READ MORE:

* Our Truth, Tā Mātou Pono: The traditional Sunday brunch, a newspaper and a taste of racism

* $18m for West Coast pounamu pathway

* Ngāti Waewae represented by pou whenua in Kahurangi National Park

**

Now the rūnanga has $12 million in assets, is providing more employment and educational opportunities for its people, and has a stake in five new $43.6m Government-funded visitor centres promised to create 30 jobs. It has also gained representation for Māori on all four of the West Coast’s councils and numerous boards.

For Tumahai, who is married to Ngāi Tahu kaiwhakahaere (leader) Lisa Tumahai, it is about getting recognition of the mana of Ngāti Waewae.

“We have been in the background for many years but now the community understands that we are a serious player,” he says.

Ngāti Waewae is the smallest hapu of Ngāi Tahu with about 6000 people who have whakapapa to the tīpuna of Te Tai o Poutini (West Coast). The hapu reaches from the Poerua River in Westland to the top of the South Island at Kahurangi Point and as far east as Arthur’s Pass.

In the early days of New Zealand settlement, Ngāi Tahu from Canterbury went to the source of pounamu on the West Coast, retelling the legend of Poutini, the taniwha who captured the beautiful Waitaiki and fled with her. They went to the West Coast of Te Waipounamu (the South Island), where he transformed her into pounamu in the bed of the Arahura River.

Ngāti Waewae chief Tūhuru, a powerful warrior born in the late 18th century, was the grandson of Waewae, and great-grandson of Ngāi Tahu chief Turakautahi. Tūhuru defeated the local Ngāti Wairangi people at Kotuku-whakaoho/Lake Brunner as he worked his way south from Karamea, defeating all before him, ending at the Maakawhio/Jacobs River.

Now, 160 years later, Ngāti Waewae has reclaimed its rightful role as guardian of the precious stone.

Francois Tumahai was born in Wellington, but his whānau is rooted in the Arahura Valley where he was brought up on the pā. Like many young West Coasters, he and his wife ended up moving away for work and raised their three children in Christchurch.

When Tumahai was elected chairman of the rūnanga in 2008, his mission was simple: to create opportunities for young people to stay on the West Coast.

“My first priority was to build this marae [at Arahura]. We’ve never had a marae on the Coast. There was no real centre [and] we needed something to inspire the young ones basically.”

The $5.5m marae partly opened in 2010, and the wharenui (main building) opened in 2014.

The marae employs six full-time staff who manage bookings from across New Zealand. The funds raised cover the costs of maintaining the marae, and go towards educational programmes like school holiday programmes for about 40 children.

Overall Ngāti Waewae employs 28 staff, including 26 who have whakapapa to the group. Most employees work for its commercial arm, Arahura Holdings, of which Tumahai is chief executive. It creates income for the rūnanga through businesses including a pounamu shop, forestry blocks, commercial properties and mining.

Tumahai says those profits pay for young people’s education and gives them work to come home to.

His own wages are “pathetic”, he says, addressing the perception that those at the top of an organisation make all the money.

His aunties would “kick my arse” if he started using rūnanga funds to pay himself for a job “you’ve got to be mad to do”.

He has two directorships – with Development West Coast and the New Zealand Institute for Minerals to Materials Research – which does top up his pay. He sits on various other boards including the West Coast District Health Board and the West Coast Conservation Board.

In a New Zealand first, the West Coast Regional Council, Ngāti Waewae, Ngāti Mahaki (Makaawhio) and Ngāi Tahu rūnanga signed a Mana Whakahono a Rohe agreement in October.

The agreement sets out how the parties will deal with Resource Management Act (RMA) matters. The iwi had previously struggled to provide input into RMA applications because there were only a few volunteers available to do so. The new agreement, which pays someone to liaise with Māori on RMA matters, paves the way for a true Treaty partnership, Tumahai says.

In 2018 and 2019, he gained representative seats on the Coast's three district councils for Māori. Tumahai is also an adviser to the Westland and Grey district councils, and has just passed his seat on the Buller District Council to fellow Ngāti Waewae representative Ned Tauwhare.

Westland mayor Bruce Smith says Tumahai is like “an Eveready​ battery”.

“He is the person that brings everyone together and his entrepreneurial focus is fantastic for all of us.”

The council was the first on the West Coast to invite representatives from its two rūnanga to the table – the other being South Westland hapu Maakawhio.

Smith said the representative seats were added after Francois and Lisa Tumahai raised concerns that the partnership between the iwi and the council was not being recognised.

“Historically we would make decisions and then consult iwi to tick the box. That doesn't work,” he says.

He has been campaigning the Government for a legal framework to allow the representatives to have full voting rights. At the moment, they can vote at council committees but not at full council meetings.

Francois Tumahai says the next step is to get voting rights, but just getting around the table is a giant leap forward when it comes to local government representation for Māori.

“I’m just another council member around the table, I have my view like everybody else. If you can articulate yourself properly you don’t need a vote.

“Talking through the issue clearly from our perspective … you can see people change their vote just by the way people are talking about it.”

He says he has encountered stigma for being Māori and wanting a seat on the council.

“There’s absolutely racism on the councils but I’m big enough and ugly enough to get in their face and tell them.”

Tumahai wants to help represent West Coast interests by lobbying the Government not to have “green eyes on”.

“You can’t feed people if you can’t use the land. We’ve used this land all our life and look at it – I don’t think we have done too much damage, have we?”

He is a big proponent of the Waitaha hydro scheme, which was rejected by the Government in 2019 because it would have tamed a ferocious stretch of water known as the “Mt Cook of rivers” for kayakers.

Tumahai also supports the mining industry, and has called for a review of stewardship land.

“We support mining on land that has been mined before. Why?

“The historic mine sites are an absolute bomb site so why wouldn’t you want to fix it and why wouldn't you want to use these miners to fix it? Makes sense to me.”