From the Chair

Tēnā koutou katoa

 

Welcome to the new look pānui, which will be published on a regular basis from now on.

We have made great progress over the past few months with key activities centered on the employment of Butch Bradley as our CEO, and his taking up the position. Butch has also employed Natalie Smith to develop the new Business Support role, with continued office support from Deb Kiesling. The team has reviewed our office structures, procedures and systems, and implemented a considerable amount of change. This work was critical to ensure we are best positioned to move forward in focused, constructive and beneficial ways.

CEO Butch Bradley has engaged in successful negotiations to obtain an improved deal for our ACE quota of fish and other seafoods and, along with other Te Tauihu iwi, is close to completing negotiations for a settlement on new Aquaculture Water Space in Tasman and Marlborough.

The development of a comprehensive communications strategy is well underway plus we have launched an Education Strategy commencing with Computers in Homes, to be followed by courses on literacy and numeracy, and financial literacy later in 2015. To add to this, a number of wānanga have been conducted with the iwi members involved in exciting and significant cultural activities, which I welcome you to read about further in this pānui.

I am also pleased to report significant advancement in our relationship agreement with Ngāti Waewae. We will soon sign two specific protocols, a Tangata Tiaki/Kaitiaki protocol for the area Kawatiri to Kahurangi Point, and an Accidental Discovery and Agreement protocol covering the finding and retrieval of Taonga, such as those found in Archaeological digs at Carters Beach.

There are a number of other opportunities in Kawatiri, which we will explore and report on as they develop. This has been a long time in the making and I offer my sincere thanks to the many of you
who have been involved with me in the kōrero with Ngāti Waewae over this time.

Finally, we are planning a number of Whānau Days later in the year, as raised at the last series of road shows. Our goal is to further that kōrero by engaging with you to assess iwi needs and to assist those that desire to better understand their whakapapa. It will also give you an opportunity to meet our new CEO, Butch Bradley.

We will advise you of the dates and locations soon, and I am looking forward to seeing you there.

Ngā mihi
Brendon Wilson
Chairman
Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Trusts