- Tuia, tuia, huihuia. Hui, huia mai e nga iwi. Ki ta tatou Hui. Haumi e, Hui e, Taiki e! This week on The Hui ` locked out of their land. Central North Island iwi collective Mokai Patea are fighting to gain access to their whenua. - It definitely is intergenerational, and it is tiring. It's a big weight on your shoulders. - The chief medical officer for Te Aka Whai Ora Rawiri McKree Jansen joins us live in studio to discuss leadership reforms and equity. Plus, we're in Rotorua with eco warrior Kiri Danielle, who has turned her life around after falling on hard times. - It was hard to get up sometimes in the morning. You know, you just go to sleep crying and wake up crying. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 - Ko nga aweawe o te rangi ki a ratou ma. Ko nga aweawe o te whenua ki a tatou katoa. Tihewa Mauriora ki a tatou katoa, and welcome back to The Hui. They've been called landless people, but that's not for a lack of whenua. The four iwi of Mokai Patea have retained over 17,000ha of land, roughly three times the size of Lake Taupo, but all of it inaccessible by car or foot. Now, in the midst of treaty negotiations, the Crown is being challenged to right its wrongs so the people of Mokai Patea can freely enjoy their land like any other landowner in Aotearoa. Kei a Meriana Johnsen tenei purongo. - Remote, rugged and unreachable. - It's a place where you couldn't go, but you heard about it all the time. And it was sort of like that out-of-reach place. - Owners don't even know where this whenua is and probably don't even realise that they're owners. - Would you not fight so that your mokos, your next generation can finally get to their land? Would you not fight for that? - Imagine still holding on to thousands of hectares of your whenua Maori, but you can't get there. That's been the struggle for over a century for the central North Island people of Mokai Patea. Here in Taihape are the headquarters for the iwi collective of Mokai Patea. - Oh, kia ora. - Kia ora. - Oh, good to see you. - Good to see you. Moira Raukawa-Haskell and Barbara Ball are the tough-as-nails aunties working to advance their people. - And this is our tupuna, so that shows you where we come from in terms of Tamatea Pokai Whenua. - This is Moawhango marae of Ngati Whitikaupeka, one of the four iwi of Mokai Patea. There's also Ngati Tamakopiri, Ngati Hauiti and Ngati Ohuaeke. Alongside them is treaty negotiator Richard Steedman. - This really started in my great-great-grandfather's time. You know, it consumed his whole life. - It's also consumed Richard's life, battling for access to landlocked whenua. - It definitely is intergenerational, and it is tiring. It's a big weight on your shoulders. - In the late 1800s, the Crown forced collectively owned Maori land to be broken up into individual titles. The whenua closest to the road was sold or leased, the inland whenua cut off. Not only did the people of Mokai Patea lose their connection to their land, they also lost their cultural identity. Some in the rohe even referred to them as an invisible people. And that's a label that still hurts to this day. - Well, I certainly feel the pain and the sorrow, the sadness of not being able to access the whenua. - Some land was eventually handed back by the Crown in the '70s, but still no access. The problem for the people of Mokai Patea is to get to their whenua, they have to go through someone else's. Not only do they have to cross through large, privately owned high-country stations, there's DOC and defence land in the way too. So if an iwi member wants to just set foot on the whenua, they have to plead their case. With no way in and no way out... - Often we'd go in at night under cover so that nobody would see us going through the farms. In those days, it was certainly no joke. We've got nearly 19km to go through their farm and their hunting areas to get to ours. (HELICOPTER ROTORS WHIRR) The choppers are well over $2000 per hour. But this is the way we're going to have to do it in the meantime. - So, if you can't go through, you have to go over. It's only from the air that you can see just how vast and rugged it is. Thousands of hectares of untapped land full of potential. For Moira, this trip has been a long time coming. How was it saying your`? - Oh, it was amazing. It was` Yeah, and I'm glad I was sitting in the front, actually. - We made sure you did. - Sort of brought a little tear to my eyes. - This is Moira's first time on her land. What's particularly special about this block for you? - Oh, cos my mum` comes from my mum, so, you know... So it's just a place where you couldn't go, but you heard about it all the time, And it was sort of like that out-of-reach place. - How has that experience changed you? - It sort of moved me, really, because my mother gave me that land. It was quite heart-wrenching, really. I really did enjoy the ride home, just looking at all the land that belongs to us, but sad that our people can't get in there unless they get helicoptered in. - Even if they could get permission to put in a road, it's been quoted as tens of millions. - I would say so what? It's been 168 years that we have not been able to get into our land. We could have been producing lots of things in there. We could have been making our own money, but we haven't been able to get in there to be able to do anything in terms of the economy. So 66 million compared to never been able to get into your land ` well, I don't know really what to say. I know what to say, but I can't say it. - Why is that? - Well, you're not allowed to swear on camera. (LAUGHS) - They're pinning all their hopes on the treaty negotiations. - The biggest thing that has hindered us is that we're on to our third chief Crown negotiator in... two years. - Wow. - So it's like you've gotta repeat your story over and over and over and over again. - If this fails, the only other option is the Maori Land Court. But that's not straightforward either. - In my experience, the timeframes in the Maori Land Court can absolutely mean that people feel like it's a too-hard basket. - Lawyer Kylee Katipo has worked 17 years in Maori land law. Are there other barriers for these landowners trying to get access? - Yeah, so the biggest barrier is the actual funding. Landowners need to be able to engage experts ` surveyors, valuers, engineers sometimes ` to provide evidence of what it's gonna take to get access through. So the Maori landowners would usually be expected to foot that bill, which, of course, you're talking about large sums of money. - And, of course, we don't have the money to even contemplate those costs. - The four iwi have big dreams for their land. They already run a successful manuka honey operation despite the challenges. But they are also keen to run conservation wananga with rangatahi, and there's even talk of a luxury lodge for the kaumatua. - It's not all about economic development. It's about our own spiritual oranga, and that's part of it ` is enjoying your whenua, enjoying the places of your tupuna, of your ancestors, and understanding what they did there and the beautiful stories. - But he's realistic about a resolution. - I can't see that I'm gonna be alive by the time we get to the solution that we should have. It's just moving so slow. - What keeps you going, then, if you don't think you're gonna see the finish line? - Yeah, well, of course, you know, my children and my mokopunas that would like to enjoy it more. So that's... We just have to keep going. The perfect access solution is that the owners of our whenua are able to enjoy that whenua just like any other Kiwi, New Zealander would totally expect. - Now, the claimants say valley land that's part of the family-owned Ngamatea Station is the most suitable for a road. However, the Apatu whanau who own it say a road is not feasible. Treaty Negotiations and Defence Minister Andrew Little says the Crown will continue to work with iwi to restore their rights wherever possible, and he expects Crown agencies will consider requests for Maori to access their whenua in good faith. Now, that was Meriana Johnsen there with her first story for The Hui. E haere ake nei i tatou hui, e te iwi, Maori Health Authority chief medical officer Takuta Rawiri McKree Jansen joins us, me nga mahi whakapiki ora ki nga iwi Maori o te motu. - Nau mai ano ra, e nga iwi. From the extreme weather events and impacts on whanau to COVID-19 and what's predicted to be a 'bumper flu season', Te Aka Whai Ora, the still fairly new Maori health authority, will have its work cut out to support whanau Maori. The Chief Medical Officer Te Aka Whai Ora, Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen joins me now. E te Takuta, tena koe. - Kia ora. - Nau mai ra ki Te Hui. The rate of COVID infections remains fairly consistent, right, with about 1600 daily cases ` new daily cases. How much of an ongoing concern is that for you for Te Aka Whai Ora, given the ongoing vulnerabilities within Maori communities? - It's pretty clear that COVID hasn't finished with us. We are really interested in supporting Maori whanau, protecting whanau, saving Maori lives. Right now, that means we have to carry on with the things that we've got in play. So masks are really important. Vaccine boosters are really important, and the new bivalent boosters coming out soon. Isolation requirements ` really important ways of looking after whanau and protecting Maori communities. So we're keen to support those things. Te Aka Whai Ora has done quite a bit of work in supporting Maori providers. I'd notice, and I think everybody in the country has noticed Maori providers have done a great job throughout COVID, from the times of testing right through the vaccination programmes, supporting whanau to be able to isolate safely. You know, Maori providers have been courageous; they've been committed and just done an incredible job. - But there has been a severe impact on the workforce. So what advice is Te Aka Whai Ora giving to the Government to be able to boost the defences, boost the work that they are doing? And what's the response from the Government been to that advice? - So, one of the really good things about Te Aka Whai Ora, as the independent Maori health independent statutory entity, is that the board has made some commitments to support Maori providers. So, in the announcement in November last year, I think $72 million was announced. 13 million of that goes towards Maori providers, acknowledging historic underfunding ` you know, the stuff that came up in the tribunal. And so we've got our board that's made commitments to Maori providers to help them get through. Invest in Maori providers is a really important way of supporting multi communities. - OK, and, of course, we talked about the bumper flu season that I mentioned earlier. So, given that and COVID and other issues that they are dealing with at the moment, what's your view? How would you characterise the situation for our providers, who are gonna be overloaded with a lot of work as we approach winter? - Yeah, so I think we want to be supporting Maori providers to carry on doing a great job. And to that end, I think we wanna support Maori communities, be well advised about the bivalent COVID vaccine booster that's available. The flu vaccination ` really important. This year, we've advocated, and we've achieved it with Pharmac to say more people get access to the flu vaccination. 6-month-old babies all the way through to 12 years, all hapu mama, all Maori over the age of 55 are all eligible. Anybody with an underlying health condition ` eligible for the flu vaccination. And when whanau go in, I think the message is make sure you get all of the vaccinations you're entitled to. Make sure that you get access to pertussis vaccination ` protect our babies. I think all of those things are part of being well-prepared to get through what is going to be a bumper flu season. - OK, how do you do that in the communities and areas that were vastly impacted by the extreme weather events? And we know what they are. You know, Te Tai Tokerau, Hauraki, Waikato, Ngati Kahungunu, Te Tai Rawhiti. What will you do there to ensure that communication is retained and maintained, particularly with whanau who have been dis-attached, who have been taken away from their homes? - Yeah, so two parts. I think, number one, Te Aka Whai Ora stood up quickly and said let's support Maori providers in those settings. I took time to go down to the East Coast and support the providers down there. I went to Matau-a-Maui, to Wairoa, to support providers there. And part of it is that we brought in teams that could help take some of the load off the providers there. I think we can also notice that Maori providers across the nation came together to support Maori providers, and so we saw that during Cyclone Hale with the Auckland Maori providers, you know, sending support up to Northland ` food packs, but also first-aid packs and hygiene sanitation stuff. So I think that's a feature that we want to see. And Te Aka Whai Ora has been really good about stepping forward and funding some of that. The second part is more about the long-term impact. So Wairoa is a good example. In fact, 9% of homes in Wairoa impacted were stickered. - Wow. - That's an incredible, intensely impactful event for Wairoa. - And a highly populated Maori community. - Yeah, definitely. And so we are seeing so many whanau, you know, not able to be in their homes and all of the effort required for clean up and so on. But notice also the mental wellness impact on that. And I think we've learned from the earthquakes in Christchurch, so getting involved early and supporting whanau with good mental wellness services, that's another feature of the work that Te Aka Whai Ora is doing. Over time, we've gotta make sure that we're looking after all those whanau who missed medicines or missed an appointment or missed a specialist event, you know, those sorts of things. And I think we just work through that in a really dedicated, deliberate way. - What's the response that you have to people who will say, 'Well, surely Te Whatu Ora can do that mahi as well'? Why do we need a Maori health authority, separate and independent, as you said, to be doing this mahi when we have a new health agency that should be doing that anyway as part of the equitable outcomes for all New Zealand communities? - Yeah. So I'd be critical I think, and say is it possible that mainstream services do it as well? Do they do it as well as Maori providers? And I think there's pretty good evidence that shows that Maori providers do a really good job of reaching into Maori communities and creating the support, which is well-received by that community. I think we've got an entitlement to have a system that works for us and understands us, and I think that's what we're starting to see in terms of Te Aka Whai Ora and our close relationship with all of those providers. - And which was the basis of Wai 2575 anyway and the equitable outcomes that were being sought as part of that claim. E te Takuta, tena rawa atu koe. - Nga mihi. - Mou i whai wahi mai ki a matou i tenei wa. - Kia ora, Julian. - Kia ora mai ra. That was, of course Takuta Rawiri McKree Jansen. After a quick break, coming up next on The Hui ` an eco warrior who has dealt with her own tribulations to triumph through her mahi tiaki taiao. - Ko te hui tenei e kokiri ake nei e te iwi. Environmentalist Kiri Danielle is a well-known face around Rotorua. Her ongoing passion for Papatuanuku has been the impetus for her most-recent accomplishment. But life hasn't always dealt her a successful hand. D'Angelo Martin reports. - Box. Can. - Kiri Danielle is a fierce eco warrior. - This place is called Waiotapu. It's sacred waters. And this is the desecration that's happening. - She has dedicated her life to cleaning up the whenua and being an awesome mum to her three tamariki. - So we had the perfect life. Yeah, it was wonderful. - But in 2016, her perfect life fell apart. - (SOBS) It was hard to get up sometimes in the morning. You know, you just go to sleep crying and wake up crying. - Kiri Danielle had everything, including a job she loved as a television presenter for the local news. - ...and we're gonna go and check this one out now. - But in 2016, she lost her marital home. - My tamariki's papa and I had an agreement for the separation of marital property, and I wasn't prepared for what that would mean for me. - Within a month, Kiri had also lost her job and kids. - At the time, I was scared of the court system. I was overwhelmed by stories of others who had gone through it, and they'd had really emotionally debilitating experiences. And it wasn't something I was brave enough to do or wanted to do, really. - Living from day to day without a home took its toll. - It was not the easiest to come from having a kainga with my tamariki to not and to being away from them and being` staying like couchsurfing or staying with friends or whanau. - So, when your friends weren't able to accommodate you, what then? - I actually had to stay in my car. And those... those were the hardest times. Holding on to my keys in my alarm, just in case anyone, like, tried my car. Forestry roads, rest areas, public toilets. - This wharepaku, what does this represent for you back in those times? - Well, it was te whare horoi. You know, it was a necessity, and it was very helpful. It was luxury for me. You know, I take my soap and have a wash. He mea whakama te hikoi ki konei i mua i te minegna. Yeah, so I always kind of snuck in. - Kiri's whanau didn't know how bad it really was. - I didn't know she was living in a car. I knew she was battling. When I say I didn't realise that ` I knew she was doing it hard. - Kiri didn't want to burden her parents at the time. She was also whakama. - I felt I'd failed my family, my tamariki. I wasn't about to go and put my hand out to my parents again. Um, and I'm very lucky, cos I'm still` I can come on here, and I'm surrounded by aroha. - Without whanau to comfort Kiri, she leaned on the support of strangers on social media. - It was heartbreaking and heart-wrenching, but at the same time, I didn't let myself sit in that too much. And there were many times when, you know, I was away from my tamariki here in Rotorua, I'm away from my whanau down... down south. And the ones I had with me right there in those moments were my Facebook whanau. - After nearly two years without permanent accommodation, she had reached rock bottom, and it was a visit from her tamariki that changed everything. - I was in Tokoroa. I was... broken-hearted, and I was on the ground crying next to some suitcases and my mattress bed, and a friend had let me stay. And when my daughter saw me, she just burst into tears, and she said, (VOICE BREAKS) 'Mum. Mum, you're weak. You're weak, Mum. 'Why don't you go back to law school and get strong?' I looked up at her, and I could see my daughter was trying to parent me. And that was the low point. - That was the moment where Kiri began to turn her life around and looked to the future. - And within a week, I'd sent off the letter to go to law school, because... Yeah, and then there was no stopping me after that. (CHEERING) - Kiri spent the next five years working hard to rebuild her life. - Now all of those things remind me why I should be the best lawyer I can be. I will never look at somebody walking with a mattress down the road or sitting outside a shop and go... (INHALES SHARPLY) Ever. I'll go, 'Got you. I know.' - Last year, Kiri graduated from law school and was admitted to the bar. - There were two things I was there for. One was for me and my babies, and so that I could be stronger. The second was for Papatuanuku. - And it was her love for Papatuanuku that led to another major step in her new career ` becoming the first Maori environmental commissioner. - I've been very privileged in the position that I've been given, and I don't see that as anything other than a responsibility in a legal sense ` how laws are made, how some of them are created when they're in the bill stage, how they go through parliament, how you can have a chance to influence those. - It's the perfect role for her. - And so that's what I always lead out with in terms of what I put into my mahi is that it's got to come i te ngakau i te tuatahi, mai te ngakau. And that means you work kore putea, which I do for the commission. Oh, yeah. It goes like this, my darling. - Commissioner or not, Kiri continues to put the mahi in cleaning up the whenua. - Far out. No, um... This was clean last time I was here. And it's so annoying. - This time with a bit of help from her son Kahutia. - My mum has created a legacy. She's a strong, independent Maori woman. She went from homeless to a lawyer. She was a single mother. I just want to make sure that I continue her legacy. - For Kahu, this is the mahi that matters. - Well, watching my mum pick up all this rubbish like she is right now, it's inspiring. So when the time comes that I'm a man, and I've got my own family, I'll instil upon these values ` you know, clean up all this stuff, take care of our land, take care of where we live. I'm incredibly proud of my mother. - Kiri will continue to do everything she can to make a change. - And I will use the law to help me do that. And I will use my love for peace to help me do that in the real world. You know, like there's two different worlds ` you get out and pick up the nappies and pick up the paru, and then also fight against the inability of the current legal system to honour her correctly. - Ma ona ringa raupa, ka tutuki pai ai te wero mo te orangatonutanga o Papatuanuku te take. - E ao te korero. Hei te wiki e tu mai nei, he tuhaha tangata Maori te ihoiho. Coming up on The Hui ` they're the Rotorua rangatahi building their own media empire. - We're trying to lead our Maori people into a new space of digitising and owning our own content. Three, two, one. Running out now. - Local Gecko Productions is on air and going out live to the world. - Our team have developed really quickly, because we sit in a space of arikitanga. We sit in a space of trying to achieve the best that we can achieve. - And to see them kind of flourish and explore media, explore the internet, social media and all of that, it's amazing. The sky's the limit for any of these rangatahi. - Next week on the Hui. A kati, kua iri ake te kete korero ki te patu o te whare iaianei. That's us for this week on The Hui. You'll find links to our stories on our Facebook and Twitter accounts or at newshub.co.nz. Kia mau ki te turanga o Taputapuatea. Haumi e, Hui e, Taiki e! Captions by Able. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 Na Te Puna Whakatongarewa Te Hui i tautoko.