Wednesday 26 June 2024

He Māori Ahau is a conference that unites kaimahi Māori working in and with the public service for a day of inspiration, connection and action. 

🔥 Get Inspired

Hear from tell-it-straight kaikōrero who speak directly to the kaupapa that ignites the fire in your puku, inspiring us into collective action.

🤝 Connect

Strengthen kotahitanga by connecting with kaimahi Māori across all sectors. Together, we’ll elevate our calibre as a takitini and amplify our impact.

🗺️ Create a Plan

Through hands-on workshops, design a roadmap that identifies actions focused on supporting our collective success as Māori.

🎒 Fill Your Kete

Gain mātauranga and practical tools that empower you in your role to drive positive change.

✊ He Māori Ahau

Feel empowered in your value and strengths as Māori working in and with the public service.

Mō wai?

All kaimahi Māori working in and with government, for Māori.

Māori in Central Government

We need this more than ever right now.
He Māori Ahau is about investing in your success as Māori.

Iwi Māori

We see you holding our ahi kā. He Māori Ahau brings us together to strengthen connections to be the best we can as a takitini.

Māori in Regional Public Sector or Local Government

Your mahi on the ground, in our communities matters. He Māori Ahau is about strengthening connections and bringing the real talk.

Māori in Digital & Tech

It’s important to ensure your perspectives and needs in technology and innovation are heard.
He Māori Ahau is about building those connections and sharing different perspectives.

Māori in the Private Sector

We know that you share our experiences, often alongside us in the tari. Let’s strengthen that connection and grow our calibre as a takitini.

Māori Creatives

You have solutions some others don't see.
He Māori Ahau is about innovation and action.

Ngā Kaikōrero

  • NGĀTI POROU, NGĀPUHI, NGĀTI KAUWHATA, NGĀTI KAHUNGUNU KI TE WAIROA

    Kararaina has extensive leadership experience, largely in the education sector spanning 30 years. Kararaina held leadership management roles at Whitireia Community Polytechnic from 1998 to early 2005, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry for Women and Te Puni Kōkiri. She also served as private secretary (in three ministerial appointments) during this time.

    Kararaina will tell you that her dream role was as the Chief Executive of Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust, where she led the movement through a significant period of change from July 2015 to early 2019. She says contributing to your iwi, your people is the most rewarding role of all – spending 21 years as a Kaiawhina at Te Wānanga o Raukawa delivering in the Iwi, Hapū Studies and seeing many whānau graduate.

    Kararaina is passionate about whakapapa ensuring that whānau are at the centre of what she gives time to in all aspects of her life. She says “any approach to resolving outcomes can only work when we are all involved.” She strongly advocates for the government systems recognising the importance and place of Māori - identity, language, and culture in our work.

    In her most recently held role at Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga Kararaina was the Deputy Chief Executive – Tumuaki Māori Housing responsible to ensure the system to respond, review, and reset the delivery of better Māori Housing options. Our organisation was relatively new and our principle challenge to our staff to be ‘treaty-anchored’ and ‘whenua-based’ was fundamental in all that they did. Genuine partnership to provide support and accelerate improving the whole system is central to improving outcomes. Sustained solutions for those in need today and for the mokopuna and future generations to come, whether in housing, education, health or employment requires every one to be fully invested.

    Kararaina says the Public Service Act 2020 (the Act) section 14 explicitly recognises the role of the public service to support the Crown in its relationships with Māori under Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi. We are agents for change to realise improved outcomes.

    Kararaina advocates that it’s critically important for Māori public servants to be culturally located and authentic in who they are. Haere Māori mai ki tō mahi!

  • NGĀTI TOA RĀNGATIRA, NGĀTI TAMA

    Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, Tumu Whakarae - CEO

    Helmut is an experienced director, executive, and consultant with specialist skills in implementation and change management, business and economic development (including new venture identification, planning, and establishment), strategic analysis and planning, public policy, and finance. Helmut has extensive consulting experience in a wide range of private and public sectors (particularly health) including appointment to the boards of PHARMAC, Capital & Coast District Health Board, Health Information Standards Organisation, and Health Information Strategy Action Committee.

    Helmut completed his BCA and MBA, which led him initially into accounting and finance, and then enabled him to transition into economic development (as the inaugural CEO of Poutama Trust) and management consulting. He also ran his own management consultancy (Arrus Knoble Developments) for 12 years and has been a CEO specializing in change, growth, mergers, and turnaround companies for the last 14 years.

    Helmut is a life-long serial entrepreneur who loves to create exciting new ventures and is fiercely passionate about working to enhance the well-being, prosperity, and mana of Ngāti Toa.

  • NGĀI TE RĀNGI, NGĀTI RĀNGINUI

    He Tangata Pōtae Rau

    Turi Ngatai MNZM is a Board member of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, the Catholic Leadership Institute – Te Kupenga, Muka Tangata Workforce Development Council and a Director of the 100% Māori owned and operated company Te Awanui Huka Pak and chairs the investment company Te Awanui Capital Ltd. He is the Deputy Chair of Ngāi Te Rangi and Te Runanaga o Ngāi Te Rangi and represents them at the Iwi Chairs.

    His current job is Investment Relationship Manager at Seeka Industries. After all that, Turi would laugh and say “I’m a kiwifruit farmer from Matapihi”.

    Turi would say his most important jobs are as a son, a husband, a father and a school principal.

    Turi grew up in Matapihi and would say that he learnt everything he knows today from his mother and father and the hau kāinga he was raised within. He speaks of love and hard work and aspiration for his people.

    He is ‘He Māori Ahau’.

  • NGĀTI POROU, NGĀTI UEPOHATU

    Associate Professor Dr. Veronica Tawhai works as Pūkenga Tiriti for the Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor Māori at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa / Massey University and as a Tiriti o Waitangi educator nationally for Te Ata Kura Educators. Previous to her Pūkenga Tiriti role she lectured for 14 years for Te Pūtahi a Toi / School of Māori Studies in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, contemporary Māori politics and policy, and Indigenous critical theories. Between 2012 – 2017 Veronica coordinated the national Matike Mai Aotearoa Rangatahi / Youth for Constitutional Transformation project, led by Moana Jackson and Professor Margaret Mutu. Her PhD research, supported by a Fulbright - Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga scholar award, studied the conscientisation work of senior Indigenous political educators in Aotearoa, Turtle Island (USA and Canada), Hawai’i and Australia for their strategies towards societal transformation in settler colonial contexts. She is currently working on updating her 2011 edited collection ‘Always Speaking’: The Treaty of Waitangi and Public Policy.

  • HE AUPŌURI, HE NGĀPUHI, HE PĀNGA HOKI KI WAIKATO ME TE WHĀNAU A APANUI

    Tihe wa mauri ora.

    Eru grew up in Te Tai Tokerau, in the birthplace of both He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti. Raised to be political and critical of our existence as tangata whenua by passionate parents also on their own journey of reclamation. Eru studied te reo and Pākehā law at Te Herenga Waka, and has worked in a variety of legal roles. He now works as a legal academic, teaching about He Whakaputanga, Te Tiriti, tangata whenua rights, as well as the intersection between Māori and Pākehā jurisprudence. He has also just applied to undergo doctoral study examining deeply the constitutional relationship in Aotearoa.

    Furthermore, Eru is a proud trustee for his iwi of Te Aupōuri and Vice-President Tāne of Te Pāti Māori. He is on a mission to empower te whakareanga hou through basic knowledge on tangata whenua rights to build confidence in holding and defending our truth that we never ceded our mana, and that we are still sovereign.

+ More to be announced!

Ngā Kaiwhakataki

  • NGĀPUHI

    Māni Dunlop, Ngāpuhi, has worked as a broadcast journalist for more than a decade, predominantly working in radio. An award-winning journalist, she started her career as an RNZ intern out of broadcasting school, soon moving into RNZ’s newly established Māori news unit, Te Manu Kōrihi, later becoming the Māori News Director. In 2020 she was made the first Māori presenter for a weekday programme on RNZ, for Midday Report, Te Pūrongo o te Poutūtanga.

    She has also hosted a number of podcasts including the Aotearoa History Show. She is the co-chair of Kawea te Rongo, the Māori Journalists Association, and often MC's and faciliates a number of events.

    She is currently working on a range of projects in communications, writing and production. Māni lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara with her whānau.

  • NGĀTI RUANUI, NGĀTI KAHUNGUNU, NGĀTI APA

    Kingi Kiriona is an orator, a kapa haka exponent, composer, educator, and broadcaster. His observation of Te Reo Māori and Te Ao Māori as a tool for improving the health and well-being of iwi and Māori communities has driven Kingi to realise opportunities for Māori language and culture to be shared, embedded, and recognised through the health system.

    In 2023, Kingi was appointed Deputy Chief Executive, Mātauranga Māori at Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. His role is predicated on promoting hauora Māori solutions based on mātauranga Māori, which includes te reo and tikanga Māori. Accordingly, he provides guidance and insight on how such solutions may be located, supported, and developed across the sector.

    He has more than 15 years of experience in the development of te ao Māori-focussed training programmes and in senior leadership and governance roles across the public and private sectors. His knowledge and experience will help lead to a system that is better aligned with Māori health workforce needs and the aspirations of iwi.

    Kingi is also a songwriter who has created pieces based on social issues and Māori history. He has produced close to 100 waiata and haka. Some of his pieces have been used as a learning resource for children in schools throughout Aotearoa.

Brought to you by Te Rau Hihiri
Backed by Mana Whenua

  • Te Rūnanganui o Te Āti Awa

  • Te Rau Hihiri

  • Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira