Ka ngaro, he ngaro tangata ora, taihoa ka kitekite ano. Kei nga manawa ora o te motu tahuti mai ki Te Hui. Ko Mihingarangi tenei e mihi atu nei ki a koutou katoa. Welcome to The Hui, Maori current affairs for all New Zealanders. E taro ake nei ` It was Te Ao Maori's answer to AirBnB. Book A Marae now one of many Maori businesses left reeling from coronavirus. We were getting to the final stages, then Covid-19 hit. But Maori entrepreneurs are rising to the challenge, practising manaakitanga to survive Covid-19. This business is not about just making money. Far from it. We really wanna help our people. We look at how they're adapting to endure the pandemic. We have an idea. We wanna make it into reality. Could Te Matatini become Te Matazini? We discuss how coronavirus is impacting kapa haka and our competitions. So, we're gonna have to think about ways in which we can do that as Maori so that we can engage in our tikanga, engage in our events, but without that physical risk. And a special performance by singer-songwriter Amba Holly. # Tu mai ra. Tukuna, tukuna. # Tukuna te ha. # Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Karahuihui mai. Aotearoa is now grappling with the formidable task of rebuilding a post-Covid-19 economy. One in 10 small to medium businesses are Maori owned, and they make up the backbone of the Maori economy. But many are suffering in this Covid-19 environment and are having to quickly adapt. Ruwani Perera met up with two very different businesses with one theme ` they're using manaakitanga to survive. No economic forecast could predict the blow that hit. Covid, it's like someone coming up the back of you and hitting you over the head with a hammer. It's like, 'Oh, nah, that's it, stop.' And no matter what business you're in, the tough times ahead call for a change in focus from bottom lines to building resilience. We have a duty to our people to show manaakitanga, and to really look after and nurture our people. But rather than packing it all in, Maori business entrepreneurs are ready to take on the challenges of the post-coronavirus climate. This business is not just about making money. That's probably far from it. We really want to help our people. We will not give up on Book A Marae. We can't afford to. Maraes are our last bastion. (MYSTICAL MUSIC) Kei te noho mokemoke te marae. The marae is lonely. Our tipuna are lonely. Cos it's people that make the marae. For more than six weeks, atea around the motu have sat in silence, deserted since large gatherings were forbidden under the Covid-19 rahui. Mataatua Marae in South Auckland would ordinarily be a hive of activity, hosting the manuhiri that generate its income. All the bookings, they were either school groups or educational institutes like wananga. We also had bookings in there for family events, sporting events. But first and foremost, tangihanga always take precedence over those bookings. It was absolutely chocka, to be quite honest, yeah. Right up till December? Right up till December. But cancellations due to the coronavirus means the revenue the marae relies on has all but vanished. It has a huge impact on the marae finances, because that really is our only revenue stream. It's just through our bookings how we are able to... be able to pay our bills. I mean, the bills the don't stop. Marae Chairman Wetini Paul says it happened just as Mataatua was modernising its business, joining Book A Marae, an online accommodation booking system a bit like a Maori AirBnB. We need to utilise technology a lot more, and that's what Book A Marae offered. Because basically we're just pen, paper and phone at the moment. We've spoken to a lot of maraes, a lot of committees. And if not all of them are struggling. We've spoken to some big ones, and they're struggling to pay their rates. And so we believe Book A Marae will be able to help them, be able to generate an income for them. Business and bubble partners Hyrum Sunnex and Breviss Wolfgramm are the brains behind the concept that aimed to deliver authentic cultural experiences for both domestic and international groups. It's estimated that around 85% of New Zealanders have never set foot on marae grounds. So, after 15 months of planning, they'd got backing from the likes of Tourism Industry Aotearoa and 20 marae from around the country keen to take part in a business trial. The maraes are going to generate an income stream, and that's the most important thing. If they can create employment opportunities for their own people, of sharing what they know, whether it's weaving, whether it's singing a song, whether it's doing a hangi. We were applying for the Maori Development Fund, and we were going through that process with Te Puni Kokiri, and we were getting to the final stages. And then Covid-19 hit. Obviously, Covid not only put paid to our application, but probably many more that are wonderful kaupapas as well. While it's still early days for Book A Marae, civil construction company iTraffic is a well-established Maori- and Pacific-owned success story. Its 250-strong workforce is predominantly Maori and Polynesian, a point managing director Glen Harding Ruma is proud of. It's good for our people to see a successful Maori and Pasifika business. It can be done, you know? The company, which started in 2004, were in the middle of a growth spurt when Covid-19 struck. We were in a bit of a peak. So it was a bit of an unfortunate time when the shutdown came. When the country went into Level 4, Glen and his management team not only made the costly decision to keep all staff employed, they went over and above to keep kai on their tables. It never entered our mind at any time to let people go. We wanted our whanau to be happy and to be comfortable. So what we did was every second week, depending on how many people they had in their family, if they were single they got a certain food pack; if there was a big family, we put a huge food pack together for them. It was only about $100 to $150 or something like that, but it was actually received really well. Did you receive any of the food packages? Yeah, I ended up receiving three food parcels, and that helped us a lot. I felt pretty secure in my job, cos they reassured us they were trying not to drop anyone. They didn't wanna drop anyone. You know, we're one big whanau and stuff. They want to keep together and all that. Now at Level 3, about 45% of the business is up and running again, and it's expected to get up to 60% in the coming weeks. We have a duty to our people, our tikanga, to show manaakitanga, and to really look after and nurture our people to give them opportunities. We were quietly confident that that work will take off again once we get back out there. If anything, it's just going to ramp up even more because they'll be trying to play catch up, especially on the major projects. While iTraffic is optimistic, the outlook for Maori unemployment is bleak. WOMEN: Kia ora! But Maori organisations are adapting quickly to the post-coronavirus climate. Mataatua showing the important role marae play during times of crisis. Have you ever had the flu vaccine before? No. Wananga and hui at are now replaced with a free mobile flu vaccination service for whanau. And done. No food is being prepared in the wharekai, but donated pantry staples are being put together for vulnerable locals experiencing hardship. Book A Marae has also refocused its business, partnering with a national food distribution company to supply marae with well-priced kai and hygiene products. Marae can then on-sell, creating a new revenue stream. I received a phone call from one of the maraes that we deal with in Mahia, and they had a rest home up there that had no sanitiser, the people at their checkpoint had no sanitiser, and their iwi, Rongomaiwahine, had no hand sanitiser. You can hear sheer desperation in people's voices. Despite shortages, Book A Marae were able to source hand sanitiser supplies and get them delivered. And the purpose behind that is to not make money from those services, it's to show that Book A Marae's not just about accommodation and authentic cultural experiences, but that we're here to help. The resilience they've shown will have to be adopted by many Maori businesses if they're going to survive post-Covid19. And for established organisations, the crisis has provided a deeper appreciation for the workers who form the backbone of their business. We can have all the trucks and all the equipment, whatever else we got, but you can't do this job without the people. And the success of this company is the success of a collective. While the whakairo in the whare wait patiently for people to return to the marae once again, Maori business entrepreneurs say they won't give up. There has to be a plan of, 'How can we help our people?' Moving forward, this will get better, and our country will get better. We're focused on our culture. We have an idea. We want to make it into reality. Na Ruwani Perera tera korero. After the break, we look at how coronavirus is impacting Aotearoa's number-one performing art. He korero kapa haka e haere ake nei. Auraki mai ano. From toddlers to kaumatua, kapa haka attracts tens of thousands of participants and hundreds of thousands of spectators year in and year out. But since coronavirus arrived on our shores, atamira across the motu have fallen silent, following the banning of large hui. The Covid-19 pandemic has seen primary- and secondary-school competitions cancelled and postponed some senior regional competitions. At this stage, the impact on our national competition, Te Matatini, is still unclear. The four-day festival is due to be held in Auckland in February next year. Te Matatini's executive committee and national board will meet at the end of this month to decide how they'll respond to the coronavirus. I think there are going to be real challenges for hui and gatherings and large events like Matatini. I think what we can see from the government's directions around sports, for example ` it can be a good indication of where we're gonna need to be heading. So for example, with Super Rugby and netball, moving into Level 2, we're seeing those things start up again but without having crowds in the stadiums. So we're gonna have to think about ways in which we can do that as Maori, perhaps using televised events, livestreaming, those sorts of things so that we can engage in our tikanga, engage in our events, but without that physical risk. And one of the things we definitely need to consider for us as Maori is that we have not just a lot of our kaumatua and older people who like to participate in these events, and they're actually critical parts of hui and gatherings and other events, but we also have a lot of high-risk people in younger age groups as well. So people with underlying health conditions that can put them at very high risk of serious consequences from Covid-19. So we need to be really mindful of those things and put the protection of people's health right at the foremost, and try and think about the ways in which we can get together, do what we need to do, but protect those who are most vulnerable. Some century-old traditions, like the Waikato-Tainui Poukai round, are set to take a break. And the iwi is discussing the option of making the king's Koroneihana a virtual hui. Unfortunately, over the last wee while we've had to postpone all physical contact with poukai because of the risk that it poses to our kaumatua. And we've also been talking about possibly virtual poukai or even virtual Koroneihana coming up, and having a sized-down hui, but utilising technology to be able to stay in touch. Because whilst our kaumatua are some of the most vulnerable in the country, they still really relish and cherish the contact that they have with each other. So we've been having significant tribal hui, like Nga Marae Toopu, with 60-odd kaumatua actually joining the virtual hui, or the zui ` Zoom hui ` sort of phase, and we think that that could be a way to be able to stay in touch while keeping our whanau safe in their bubbles. The question now is if Te Matatini and other kapa haka competitions will have to follow suit. So to discuss how the pandemic is impacting this unique art form and those who love it, I spoke to three kapa haka fanatics ` producer, presenter and performer Chey Milne, Te Kapa Haka o Te Whanau-a-Apanui's frontman, Tamati Waaka, and poi swinger turned communications specialist Amomai Pihama. Could we look to the future of Te Matatini being televised only? I don't know how that would go if it was just televised only. Like, what would the wairua of that kind of a thing be? Obviously, it'd still be a competition event. But there's so much more to Te Matatini than just the competition, in my opinion. It's the biggest event that brings our people together. And I think it's sad. But you gotta keep haka going. It's the life force for so many of us. I've hung up my piupiu, but I've got two children who, like, I'm just the haka mum going to their trainings pretty much all year round, and it's been difficult not just for` Well, pakeke are loving it; they're having a break, but our kids ` it's been difficult for them, because they have nationals, secondary and regionals and primary coming up this year. They had started their trainings. You gotta remember that's thousands and thousands of our tamariki Maori who are now stuck in their homes, not with their mates doing their normal haka, which is what gears you up to that Matatini level. Amomai makes a really good point about the wairua of a competition. Tamati, you're a winner amongst all of us. You know what it's like to be on the stage and to win Te Matatini with a huge crowd of your home people and things. What do you think about... Would we still be able to feel the wairua of the kapa haka if it's on television? It's one of those things that you don't know until you actually do it. I just did some storytelling the other day on here, and I can't do storytelling without a live audience ` the interaction and getting the energy. And it's this ihi thing. You give ihi and you receive ihi. But can it be done online? I don't wanna say it can't be. But just to follow up on the korero of my mates up there, my young fulla was on his classroom call yesterday, and the patai to the kaiako was, 'Have we got kapa haka next term?' So it's at all levels. The high school competitions were cancelled, and my two teenagers, they're not very happy at all. But they've been cancelled. Yes, yes. That's hot off the press even before even start talking about Matatini. It's ages away in terms of their secondary and primary school competition. Ropu literally bear the names of their iwi and their communities. What will be the impact, do you think, on these hapori that just live for kapa haka? I think there's a lot of... If we're talking impacts, there's a lot of flow-on effects, if you're talking positives, from kapa haka. Bringing people together. A lot of our whanau can be disconnected from their own hapori, from their whanau, from their kainga, from their whanaunga. Kapa haka brings everyone together. There's the te reo Maori side of things, there's the hauora... There's so many different things that I guess it's like the new marae of our hapori that brings people together and that brings whanau together. So without that, I feel sorry for some of our whanau. Sorry, can I go back to your other point about being streamed, I don't know if that's really a bad thing, to be fair. I used to watch 2002 on a videotape every day for two years. And it was still mean after a year and a half. So I don't necessarily know if that's a bad thing, the whole streamed buzz. For me, it's the stuff that before you get to the stage, and it's the stuff that comes after that as well. So the streaming, kei te pai tera. We just need to figure out how we're gonna get to the stage as kura, te patai muri, I guess. Yeah, tika. It's the health thing, eh. Like, I mean, I would not let my children be going to kapa haka if there isn't huge assurances that I know that they're not gonna contract the virus. Ultimately, it comes down to life or death, as far as I'm concerned, when we're dealing with whanau. Take a break, whanau. Do you think it'll have any impacts on their NCEA and, you know, their learning? It's so interwoven into the curriculum these days. Yeah, that's... The last few years, my children have experienced that. And the kapa haka competitions is part of the NCEA. So... And that's how it was geared up, and that's how it's meant to be. Unit standards and all those achievement standards. So that would have an effect on learning, to some degree. But my wife's a kaiako, so they're very creative, so I think that's gonna happen; they'll find a way around it. You think it's health and safety first, Tamati? Is that the most important thing? Oh, it's just being practical. I mean, we're thinking of, 'Oh, the world is ending.' It's not. We're down to no cases, eh, the last few days. So the trajectory is looking kinda good, in my opinion. So I don't think we have to panic and reinvent things and say, 'Right, let's have Matatini online.' Or let's do Matatini on Zoom or let's do, I don't know, Zoom-tini or something. Just have to wait it out. Because your tamariki can't get into their ropu and have noho and kapa haka, what are some of the ways that you're going to fill that void for them? So, yeah, that's been the toughest thing, I have to say. From a parent's perspective of die-hard haka kids, that's been the hardest thing. My children were dragged to kapa haka, like I'm sure the rest of yours were, from the time they were in my kopu. So it's made them... I honestly account a big part of who they are ` and who I am ` to my experiences being surrounded by the community that kapa haka wraps around you. Not only that, but your ability... your resilience. And we all know if you've grown up doing competitive haka, you become quite resilient and adaptable. There's always` So there's a whole bunch of life skills that the community of kapa haka brings you. So, yeah, I don't think it needs to change. I agree with Tamati. With regards to my children, I feel aroha for my kids because in our bubble it's just my kids, not their cousins. And I'm not a teacher, and neither are their grandmothers or their father. So my children are left to watch this stuff online. And they're good. They're making do. And I'm so proud of Maori, I just have to say, because I've heard so many stories ` they've all been keeping to their bubbles. And it's not easy living in this little nuclear family thing day after day after day. We're not built like that. But I think Maori have done so well during this. Down to, as Tamati said, zero cases. Usually, we're way up there in the statistics. But Maori have done so well. So wait it out and we'll get there, and haka will come back bigger and better than ever, I reckon. So, you'll be tuning into Te Matazini, if it's a thing? Of course, of course. We'll be watching it. Chey'll probably be making it. (ALL LAUGH) And, yes, we'll tune in. Tena koutou, nga whetu o te atamira. Tena rawa atu koutou. Kia mau tonu mai ra te titiro ` after the break, to celebrate New Zealand Music Month, a special performance by Waikato-Tainui's Amba Holly. Kei te matakitaki koutou i a Te Hui. Hei tera wiki, hei kaupapa whakapiki wairua mai te koti poitarawhiti. They were the team at the bottom until they found their edge. Immersing themselves in Te Ao Maori has given the Central Pulse a winning culture on and off the court. (WHISTLE BLOWS) The Pulse are victorious! It's built a level of trust within each other, and it's kind of made everyone a little bit more comfortable. (WILD CHEERING) Kua hikina Te Hui mo tenei ra, e hoa ma. To celebrate New Zealand Music Month, we leave you with a special performance this morning by multi-award-winning Waikato-Tainui artist Amba Holly and her track Tukuna te Ha, which is available for download on iTunes from Monday. Kia haumaru te noho, paimarire ki a tatou katoa. (ACOUSTIC GUITAR PLAYS) # E rere kau ana # ko taku aroha # Ki nga iwi taketake katoa # ka whawhai tonu tatou # Tu Kaha # Tu Maia # Tu Manawanui # Mo tatou katoa # Nga iwi taketake # Tu mai ra. Tukuna, tukuna # Tukuna ko te ha # Tukuna ko te ha # Tukuna ko te ha # Tukuna ko te ha # He mihi whakamanawa # manawa # Ki te hunga e hikoi Maori na # i te whenua # Tu kaha # Tu maia # Tu manawanui # tatou katoa # Nga iwi taketake # Tu mai ra # Tukuna, tukuna # Tukuna ko te ha # Tukuna, tukuna # Tukuna ko te ha # Tukuna, tukuna # Tukuna ko te ha # Tukuna ko te ha # Tukuna # kia rere # Tukuna # kia ora # Tukuna # kia mau # Tukuna # Tukuna te ha # Tukuna te ha. # www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2020 ALL: He mea tautoko na Te Mangai Paho. The Hui is made with support from New Zealand On Air.