Short film for Mine Bay carvings
Tena ano tatou katoa.
I hope that everyone had an enjoyable long Labour Weekend.
I was honoured to be invited to attend the installation and blessing of Ngatoroirangi Iti at the Taupo I-Site, a carving which celebrates 40 years since the beginning of the carving of the now world famous Mine Bay depiction of Ngatoroirangi.
Unfortunately due to commitments that had been standing for many months, I was unable to attend.
But I do want to take the opportunity to mihi to Matahi Brightwell, of Ngati Whakaue, who designed and carved this spectacular art work.
I am pleased that Matahi has finally been recognised in this way, after seeing images of his artwork on the most recent publication of the White Pages without any acknowledgment, and knowing that the carvings are the destination for many tourists who are taken there on boat tours and kayaks.
It’s great that there is a desire to market it, but what must go hand in hand with that is the correct history of the carvings, and acknowledgment of how and why they are there.
To that end, I am pleased that Tourism NZ, Destination Great Lake Taupo and NZ Maori Tourism has commissioned a six minute short film sharing the story of these carvings. Ka nui taku mihi ki a koe e te rangatira mo ou mahi whakairo.
In my last column I talked about the 22 day challenge I was taking part in, to recognise and bring awareness around the risk of suicide, particularly from our returned service men and women who deal with post-traumatic stress from war.
Whilst I completed my challenge, it was disappointing to read the reports last week that showed an increase in suicide statistics across the country, in fact the worst they’ve been since around 2010/2011.
The figures are disappointing given the huge amount of work that I know is put in by organisations and individuals who work so hard to prevent any further deaths by suicide.
There is no easy fix, but the common call from what I am told by the experts is that we need to be talking more. Talking to our tamariki, to our mama’s and our papa’s who maybe feeling stressed. To our rangatahi who are having a hard time with friends or in relationships.
One of the benefits of being alongside the Government is that we are able to negotiate budget money, and this year we secured $2 million for youth suicide prevention.
This putea has been allocated to 28 organisations to run suicide prevention initiatives with a focus on cyber bullying and takatapui. There is a lot more work to do, we know this and we will work hard to continue advocating in this space.
I welcome your feedback. Email mpwaiariki@parliament.govt.nz Phone 0508 924 274
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Their passion is to protect the Taupo community but that is getting harder lately as volunteer numbers are getting lower. - Taupo Times story promo on Facebook about the Taupo Community Patrol.