Tēnā tātou katoa e te whānau, i te tuatahi ka nui te mihi aroha ki ngā whānau Briggs, Roretana rātou ko Tamati i tēnei wā pouri. Ka nui te aroha mō te Mareikura a Placid Briggs, moe mai rā e te Whaea.
On behalf of the Ongare Board of Trustees, we acknowledge the recent passing of our beautiful whanaunga and Ongare owner Placid Te Aorere Briggs Murdoch and the whānau she leaves behind including her two beloved daughters Zara and Simone.
A few people including Placid’s sister Linda Pomana and cousin Hemi James Rolleston noted that although she was placid by name, Placid was definitely not placid by nature.
Some of our owners and most definitely Trustees of our Board knew Placid well from previous owners hui throughout the years and lets just say that Placid had a passionate and forthright way of making herself and her views known to us all and she is a presence that will be greatly missed by not only her whānau but by our wider Ongare whānau as we move forward in 2023.
As part of the telling of the Ongare Story and to grow the awareness of our whānau especially those living outside of Tauranga Moana, we would like to share the individual stories of our current Trustees, each of their journey’s in governance and with Ongare Trust.
Many of our owners probably already know two of our responsible Trustees and Kuia Pua Taikato and Kura Benton from the various kaupapa that they are involved with around the rohe mainly supporting our three Marae of Whareroa, Hungahungatoroa and Waikari in their roles as Kuia and Kaikaranga.
We want to share more of our Trustee stories here so our whānau get to know more about our Trustees and how we came to the Ongare Board in this series of Trustee Profiles.
Tena rā koutou e Te Whānau,
I became interested in this Trust back in the 1980s when I used to drive my father Jimmy Paki to meetings. He was one of the foundation Trustees.
After his passing, I was confirmed as a replacement Trustee in 1985. Those early years are dear to me because I had a wealth of experience and rangatiratanga around me, including Turi Te Kani, Kapua Te Ua, Ngaroimata Cavill, Kiri Hall, Ron Papuni as well as my father who were the first Trustees.
Maori blocks had returned to Owners after 99 year leases on peppercorn rentals ended.
The collective drive still continues after 38 years to develop our own land with kiwifruit production.
Nāku noa
Pua Taikato
Following delays due to the Covid Era and concerns about the recent extreme weather events Te Matatini 2023 - herenga waka herenga tangata has come back bigger and better after a four-year hiatus.
The biggest kapa haka whakataetae in the world is also an opportunity for all of Te Ao Māori to congregate together again and to celebrate being Māori.
Our own Tauranga Moana kapa including Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Ranginui and Tutarakauika ki Rangataua both gave stellar performances on the opening day of the competitions in back to back slots 2 and 3 across the 3 days of preliminary performance.
Ongare Trust recognises the value of pan Māori kaupapa like Te Matatini, the opportunity for our whānau to participate at the regional level towards winning a place at Te Matatini every 2 years and the hard work, sacrifice and dedication it takes to get there.
In 2023 Ongare Trust have given both of our Tauranga Moana kapa a community grant of $2500 each towards their respective Te Matatini campaigns and in the case of Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Ranginui a celebration later this year of their 34th anniversary as a kapa.
At this point we would also like to acknowledge one of our Ongare owners and whanaunga Te Maumako August who is a lifetime member of Te Kapa Haka o Ngāti Ranginui and who also created the men’s maro for Tutarakauika and the women’s dresses for Te Iti Kahurangi this year. Ka rawe tō mahi e te whanaunga.
Aunty Kura and Aunty Pua were also invited to accompany Tutarakauika as their Kuia and we know that they are great ambassadors for not only our Tauranga Moana pakeke but also for Ongare Trust wherever they go.
The tagline of Te Matatini is herenga waka herenga tangata referring to the tying together of waka and people or a collective bringing together of people from various waka and tribal rohe under one banner kaupapa - te kaupapa o te kapa haka.
In this way also Te Matatini is a kaupapa where whakawhanaungatanga is a key part of the festival and the opportunity to catch up with whānau and friends alike is always high on the agenda and happens naturally between trips to the kai stands, browsing through the shopping stalls and finding the best spots to sit and watch the kapa.
Some of our Ongare Trustees joined whanaunga and ASB Kaihāutu Māori Anthony Ririnui for a day at Te Matatini as Anthony manages Ongare’s business banking with ASB. For those of you who know Uncle Waraki Paki and Aunty Polly Paki, Anthony is Aunty Polly’s nephew.
It was also an opportunity for us to touch base with other whanaunga and new contacts Rangi Ririnui (Uncle Mita Ririnui’s son) and Tahana Tapsell (mokopuna of Peter Tapsell) both of New Zealand Trade and Entreprise.
Thanks to the introduction by Anthony, Rangi and Tahana have provided funding from NZTE for Ongare to engage in a Te Pae Roa workshop with MyFiduciary governance professionals where we intend to start to build a SIPO framework and utilise this session to inform our 2023 strategic planning.
In our last Owners newsletter we gave an update that we had entered Ongare’s kiwifruit into the bi-annual Ahu Whenua Trophy run by the Ministry of Primary Industries or MPI.
Ngamanawa Trustee John O’Brien and Ngamanawa and Ongare Owners - Hemi James Rolleston & Tui Yeagher joined by Ngai Tukairangi Trust Chair Te Ratahi Cross, CEO Dr Riri Ellis & Trustee Helen Ellis attending the announcement of the Ahu Whenua Trophy 2023 finalists at NZ Parliament
2023 was Ongare’s second time to enter the competition for the Horticulture sector however we were not a finalist this time around but Ongare Trust extends our congratulations to whanaunga and Chair Te Ratahi Cross, CEO Dr Riri Ellis and all the Board and Management of Ngai Tukairangi Trust in making it to the finals this year with the Ngai Tukairangi Hawkes Bay apple growing operation.
We also want to acknowledge both Te Ratahi and Neil Te Kani along with Turi Ngatai who came to tautoko Ongare as we were visited by the Judging panel of experts late last month.
We stand proudly alongside our whānau knowing that we are all winners already and we will keep our Owners updated about the awards which will be held at Trustpower Arena, Baypark on the 9th of June 2023.
ahuwhenuatrophy.maori.nz/publications/
blog/2023-finalists-announced
