Waitangi Day 2022: Reflections of rising Taranaki rangatira

Friday, 4 February 2022

They are the names that hold their mana long after those who held them have gone.

Doctor and politician Sir Māui Pōmare, Parihaka prophets Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi and, more recently late Dr Huirangi Waikerepuru for his work to preserve and promote te reo Māori.

Taranaki has a proud history of producing Māori leaders whose influence grew far beyond their iwi, to have a lasting impact on the country’s cultural heritage.

That heritage of leadership continues to this day.

In mainstream society, leadership comes via promotion, nomination or a vote count, but in Te Ao Māori, rangatira status can come by virtue of whakapapa and mana.

Dinnie Moeahu

For New Plymouth district councillor Dinnie Moeahu (Te Ātiawa, Taranaki, Ngāruahine and Ngāti Porou) leadership means having a “duty of care and responsibility to kin”.

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“It’s always being in service to your people.”

Of the leaders and mentors who have influenced him during his life, Moeahu says they were always humble, never looking for reward.

People see the mahi you do, which earns you respect, and then the call comes to step up, Moeahu says.

“All of a sudden you’ve gone from the kitchen to the paepae.”

Being aware of where the levers of power lay was something which emerged over time for the 43-year-old.

“If you want to exact any change, you have to be at the table.”

Elected to a New Plymouth city ward seat in 2019, Moeahu has ruled out a tilt for the mayoral chains at this October’s local body election.

While he admits he’s regularly stopped and asked to stand for higher office, he says it's not a decision for him.

It will come down to what his whānau want him to do.

“The community itself has a way of bringing that to the fore and only time will tell really.”

As ngā iwi o Taranaki move into the post-settlement phase, Moeahu sees Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a way to provide an enduring template for ongoing partnership building in businesses, organisations and across councils.

Whānaungatanga, or the importance of relationships with others, is one of five traits University of Waikato research identified about Māori leadership.

The other values outlined in the 2019 paper are; whakaiti or humility; ko tau rourou/manaakitanga or altruism; tāria te wā/kaitiakitanga or long-term thinking/guardianship; and tikanga Māori or cultural authenticity.

Te Aorangi Dillon

For Te Korowai o Ngāruahine Trust’s freshly minted tumu whakare/chief executive Te Aorangi Dillon, her pathway was set by her tupuna.

“I’m one cog within a huge succession plan within my whānau, hapū and iwi. So, while others see it as ‘leadership’ we see it as an obligation to our people,” Dillon says.

“It’s been our life’s work.”

A feature of the mother-of-three’s mahi in recent times has been championing for a Māori ward at the Stratford District Council along with her advocacy and support for the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out in central and south Taranaki.

But it’s never been about her contribution as an individual.

As a child, the 42-year-old, who is Ngāruahine and of the Ngāti Hāua, Ōkahu-Inuawai and Kanihi-Umutahi hapū, grew up on the marae, watching, listening and readying herself to “roll up our sleeves and get into the thick of things”.

“It’s ingrained in us. It’s not about ‘I’ it’s about ‘we’ even when in our own little whare, there’s always more than just yourself to consider.”

By 2050, Dillon has a clear vision for the region, including the normalisation of te reo Māori across communities, due respect being given to tikanga and for tamariki to be thriving in the nation’s classrooms.

“It will be an extension of the growth we are seeing today however, it won’t be deemed as only Te Ao Māori, it will be, as it is for most of us now, te ao hurihuri – normal – to everyone who lives in Taranaki.

“We, as a province, would have evolved, because what is good for Māori really is good for everyone.”

Vince Nuku

And seeing that success is what drives Hāwera-based Vince Nuku.

While the Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāruahine man is fine calling himself a “jack of all trades” he’s pretty quick to shirk the leadership tag.

But he is one of a crop of up-and-comers identified by Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who is arguably a political force in her own right.

“I don't like looking at myself as a leader – what drives me is whānau and kaupapa,” says Nuku, who with his wife, has six children along with providing care for two others.

Along with his day job as innovation education officer at Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui, where he is involved in e-sports and coding, the 38-year-old wears many pōtae, including being an ordained Anglican priest.

He’s often called on for karakia and whaikōrero duties, or to assist at tangihanga.

Effectively, if he gets the call, he goes.

“I think they call it a jack of all trades.”

Some of the roles he takes on have come about after people recognised the potential in him to do it before he realised it himself, while others, like his vocation as a priest, are tied to his whakapapa.

With no personal ambitions as a leader, he defines his future through the lives of his tamariki and the other rangatahi he works with.

He says they already embrace everything on offer in the mainstream and Māori worlds, from tikanga to technology.

And by nurturing them, Nuku feels he is doing his part to shape the next wave of rangatira Māori.

Tiri Porter

It’s that behind-the-scenes influence which sits most comfortably with Waitara woman Tiri Porter, who is of Te Ātiawa and Manukorihi hapū.

She says she doesn’t “put herself out there or has the loudest voice in the room” but its past experiences of feeling unheard which motivates the work she does.

Along with several paid roles, including as secretary of the Manukorihi Pā Trust, which has oversight of Owae Marae, Porter is often shoulder-tapped to join community groups, her most recent appointment being to the North Taranaki Healthcare Trust.

One of the factors which comes to the fore in whatever she is involved in is the role of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Porter says it is important for people to know the history of Aotearoa, to acknowledge Māori as tangata whenua and to genuinely engage with iwi and hapū.

“We need to do more than just tick the box, more than just tokenism.”

Porter, who is due to complete her graduate diploma in indigenous theology this year, says the treaty is also a starting point to discuss reconciliation and what that looks like in communities.

The 42-year-old says her marae upbringing provided her with a model of what unity can look like.

“Everyone has a part to play, at the front and at the back, and it doesn’t work if everyone doesn’t work together.”