Iwi targets jobs, housing with funds
Nga¯ruahine iwi is changing the way it spends and invests to bring more benefits back home to its wha¯ nau and the local area. In the next five years the iwi wants to build 200 houses for uri (descendants), award at least 50 contracts locally, and create more than 200 jobs, apprenticeships and internships.
The South Taranaki iwi’s postsettlement entity Te Korowai o Nga¯ruahine received $68 million in its Treaty of Waitangi settlement in 2015 and has since grown that pu¯ tea to $112 million. But Te Korowai’s pouuruhi (external relations lead) Te Uraura Nganeko said money isn’t the main priority for the iwi.
“We’ve done really well in commercial investments — but what we haven’t done well is in delivering social outcomes for our people: creating jobs, developing businesses, building houses.”
Nganeko told Te Korowai’s recent AGM that required a paradigm shift.
“We needed a strategy that would build a strong Nga¯ruahine economy, with Nga¯ ruahine at the helm, and that we privilege our own first and foremost.”
The resulting procurement strategy Te Ara Toiroa would see Te Korowai prioritise business dealings with uri of Nga¯ruahine first, followed by other Taranaki uri and finally with Ma¯ori businesses from outside the region.
Nganeko said it would create a pipeline of business and employment opportunities.
“Having a strong vibrant circular economy is in my opinion the key enabler to deliver the social, cultural, environmental and economic goals and aspirations of Nga¯ruahine.
“We’ve been talking about it for decades, so now Te Korowai has put the pou in the ground and we’re totally focused on supporting the health and prosperity of our people.”
Te Kiwai Mau¯ı is Nga¯ruahine’s commercial arm, managing its settlement assets to provide a stable dividend to Te Korowai. Director Taaringaroa Nicholas told the AGM that Mau¯ı had been investing outside the rohe (local area) in the hunt for good returns. But he said that will change over the next five years and beyond.
“We’ll be looking to invest more in the rohe using the cashflow from outside the rohe and bringing it back to develop opportunities, mahi and benefits for the wha¯nau that are here — and also opportunities for the wha¯nau that want to come back.”
Nicholas said their Pupuke te Hihiri local impact investment strategy is to invest not only for economic returns but also social, environmental and cultural benefits. He said the major project of buying and rebuilding Te Rere o Ka¯puni — the former Dawson Falls Lodge on Taranaki maunga — offered multiple returns.
“Bringing people in from the world, manaaki-ing people and then telling our story for them to go out and say how wonderful their stay at Te Rere o Ka¯ puni was, and how wonderful the Nga¯ruahine people were who looked after them.”
Te Kiwai Mau¯ı is also investigating a combined civic development with South Taranaki District Council called Project Tukau, a multi-purpose iwi and civic facility in Mana¯ia. Plans are also under way to build affordable housing in Whakaahurangi (Stratford), working with the multi-iwi housing agency Ka Uruora.