Pokohu A3 Māori Reservation land
Ngāti Rangitihi is currently exploring changing the responsible trustee for Pokohu A3 Māori Reservation land. This land was originally awarded to Ngāti Rangitihi by the Native Land Court in the late 1800s. Following a Māori Land Court decision in 1973, the land was set apart as a Reservation, as a place of historical and scenic interest for the common use and benefit of our people. The Te Arawa Māori Trust Board became the responsible trustee to administer the land on behalf of Ngāti Rangitihi.
Today, the Te Arawa Lakes Trust is the responsible trustee. Te Mana o Ngāti Rangitihi has recently commenced negotiations with the Lakes Trust for it to become the responsible trustee.
Te Arawa Lakes Trust Election
Te Arawa Lakes Trust elections are coming up later this year. We want to see top-quality Ngāti Rangitihi candidates standing for the three positions available. If you are interested in standing for election please contact the Lakes Trust office.
We need Ngāti Rangitihi iwi to register with the Lakes Trust, so we can all vote for our candidates.
Please fill out the registration form enclosed with this newsletter and send it to the Lakes Trust. You can download a registration form here.
Māori Roll or General Roll – your choice
If you’re Māori and 18 or over, it’s time to make a simple but important choice – do you want to be on the Māori Roll or the General Roll? You won’t get to choose again until 2024, so it’s worth thinking about. The Māori Electoral Option runs from 3 April – 2 August 2018.
To find out more, go to www.maorioption.org.nz, call 0800 36 76 56, or visit www.facebook.com/maorioption
Charitable Trust Grant Recipient
In each newsletter, we profile one of our Charitable Trust Grant recipients. This edition, we give an update on Tawharangi Smith.
Tawharangi received a grant of $500 in January 2016 for Waka Ama. This year he is competing in the J19 Elite Boys’ Waka Ama 2018 IVF Va’a World Club Sprints to be held in July in Tahiti. This development squad has only seven young men – but it will be one to watch! Getting into this elite team is a significant achievement and we wish Tawharangi all the best and look forward to hearing of his progress.
New Charitable Trust criteria
We have recently reviewed our Charitable Trust categories and criteria. The new categories are: Community, Education, Sports and Kaumātua. The criteria for ‘Education’ have changed, whereby grants are made for studies completed. The Kaumātua category (for iwi 70 years +) provides for reimbursement of up to $200 for medical items and services.
You can read more about our Charitable Trust and see full grant application details on our website www.ngatirangitihi.iwi.nz
Charitable Trust Grant Recipients April 2018
Bilateral Agreement with Ministry of Education
Following on from last year’s successful programme of Māori immersion initiatives to support Ngāti Rangitihi students towards achieving educational success, we have once again committed to working with eighty of our school-age children to achieve the same outcomes.
The two ‘Muri Kura’ (after-school) programmes will be transformed into a two-hour, weekly stint in the Matatā School rumaki class and a number of small group ‘Muri Kura ki te Kainga’ sessions in Rotorua.
We will continue to support secondary school students with ‘Kura Tauwhi’, a special immersion programme conducted during weekends whereby students learn and achieve credits towards NCEA qualifications.
A new feature of this year’s programme includes a joint approach with Taichi and Carly Playle to provide Ngāti Rangitihi youth with a maunga/awa/marae/moana holiday camp experience. This initiative is designed to guide our youth towards acquisition of Rangitihi identity and we expect that over a period of time the camp will morph into immersion.
A particularly successful feature of our 2017 Ma Te Reo contract was the Kura Reo held on Mokoia Island with parents, children and grandparents learning together in an immersion environment. We will duplicate that immersion experience and encourage one adult plus one child participation (One Plus One) as a way of promoting Māori language in the home.