Tena Koutou Katoa
In January 2023, Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Hikairo met together to discuss future plans and opportunities for the next 12 months and next three years. A draft strategic plan has been developed and is under review by the Rūnanga. We hope to release this draft at the end of March 2023 and undertake consultations on this draft at the same time as we undertake our next round of treaty negotiations consultations.
As a part of those discussions, we agreed that we would begin a process of improving our communications with iwi members. The first part of that commitment was to begin a series of regular updates by the chair of our activities. Initially these updates will occur after each monthly meeting but will also happen as and when necessary.
This is the first update from me as Chair because of these decisions, and I will cover off some of the discussions had at our last meeting in February 2023 as well as any future planned events.
Handover of the Mangakaware Cultural Impact Assessment
Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Hikairo and Ngāti Apakura participated in a handover ceremony with the Waipa District Council for the Lake Mangakaware Cultural Impact Assessment on Saturday 25 February 2023 at the Council Chambers of the Waipa District Council. This is the culmination of an enormous amount of work by Frank K Thorne and Pipi Barton, with the support of whanau members Hano Ormsby and Jane Anderson. We were also able to draw on the support of whanau members from Ngati Apakura to produce what I consider to be an excellent and highly professional piece of work.
The hand over ceremony was a success where Waipā District Council gifted a [insert name] tree to Ngāti Hikairo which was then provided to Waipapa Marae Trustees on 26 February 2023 at the AGM to plant on our whenua. The granddaughter of the landowners adjacent to Lake Mangakaware attended the handover ceremony to return a taonga to us discovered as they were farming the whenua. We were thrilled to receive this taonga on behald of the iwi. We are currently working through options of what to do with this taonga and we will certainly seek whānau views on these options.
The Lake Mangakaware Cultural Impact Assessment report is now available on our website. Please note that the document can only be accessed by registered iwi members who have logged onto the website. Casual visitors to the site will not be able to see this and other reports that will be held on the website for whanau to see.
Resource Management Committee
The Resource Management Committee is one of the more active parts of the Rūnanganui ensuring that the territorial authorities and government agencies consult with Ngāti Hikairo regarding any of their activities that are subject to either the Resource Management
Legislation or any other regulative framework. Much of this activity goes on continuously and successfully, thanks to the hard work support several Committee and iwi members.
So that whanau are aware of these activities, we will be publishing a page which outlines these engagements on the Rūnanganui Website. It will be updated every month with any new engagements.
Annual General Meeting 2023
We have begun planning for the Annual General Meeting for 2023. It is early yet, but the current dates and details are as follows:
- AGM date has been agreed for 17 June 2023
- AGM location will be Waipapa Marae Kawhia
- Official Pānui will be issued on the website on 24 April 2023
- Documents, including proxy and nomination forms for the AGM will be published on 5 May 2023
- Financial Accounts will be published on 3 June 2023
- Proxies and Nominations are due to the secretary on 9 June 2023
If any of these dates change, we will advise you as soon as possible.
Financials
We receive a monthly report from the Treasurer regarding transactions since the last meeting, future planned expenditure, and our current balance of account. As whanau are aware, much of the operations of the Runanganui are funded by agencies in a claim back for costs process. It does mean that the accounts need to be managed very carefully to ensure sufficient funds are available as accounts fall due. I am pleased to advise that while we are operating under tight budgets, the Runanganui continues to have a small positive balance in the accounts.
I hope that this information helps whanau keep abreast of the Rūnanganui activities and I look forward to seeing you all at Poukai and our AGM in June.
Arohanui
Susan Turner
Chair, Te Runanganui o Ngati Hikairo