- Tu ki runga, tu ki raro, tu ki wheawhea. Tu ka whakaputaina ki te whei ao ki te ao Marama. Oi, oi, oi, oia mai te tokio! A haumi e, hui e, taiki e! This week on The Hui ` looks like cyclone-damaged homes and Marae in Hawke's Bay will have to rebuild elsewhere. But what will this mean for the haukainga? And whanau in South Auckland are learning how to make tasty takeout meals at home. - Let's see. Let's see. Let's` Oh, hello. - They're sustainable, healthy and kind on the pocket too. - Helping people understand things are cheaper if you do it like this. - Plus, we meet one of the wahine behind Maori Girls Skate, a movement to encourage more Maori girls to give it a go. - I wanna do more events. I just wanna get as much skating out in the community as possible. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 - Pari kau ana nga tai pari ata ka timu te tangata ki te po nga mate o te wa, haere mai, haere. Tatou kei te pito ora, Tihewa Mauriora. And welcome back to The Hui. The devastating impacts of Cyclone Gabriel were plain to see for many throughout Aotearoa, but they were particularly evident in Te Tairawhiti on the East Coast and Te Matau-a-Maui, Hawke's Bay. Those impacts are still keenly felt, with some hapu now in the position of having to consider moving marae, urupa, wahi tapu to new locations to protect communities and whanau. Joining me now is the chair of Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated, Bayden Barber. Te Tukemata o Kahungunu, e kara e Bayden, tena koe. - Tena koe, e hoa. - Thank you so much for your time. Let's start, and we've got a bit of time, so I wanna try and really delve into this. What, for you, is the biggest need now? - We have whanau still living at marae, so we need housing. Whanau have been dislocated and relocated to other locations. So rebuilding communities, getting housing up and going, getting our whanau back into their kura. We have schools that have been relocated. So the rebuild ` there's a lot of work to be done. But certainly coming into winter, it's important whanau are in housing, warm, safe. - Let's get to housing, then, and let's follow up on that point. Is there enough housing stock available and good land and safe land available to put those houses on? - So, Hawke's Bay has been in a housing crisis before the cyclone, and so this has... really put the heat on our ability to house our people. We do have land. Councils have land, and what we're saying is let's work with iwi, manawhenua, hapu to get our whanau` in partnership to get whanau housed. You know, they have serviced sections. We're one of the four iwi housing prototypes. It just makes a lot of sense to work together. - What about the resources from the government to be able to enable that to occur? There's lots of money that came in from the budget ` allocated millions to the region. How confident are you that that will get to where it's needed and required most? - It's the big patai. You know, we need to get that money to our whanau ASAP. We understand that there's government process, that they have government agencies that basically are fund holders. Our korero to them is work closely with iwi, hapu and marae. Otherwise there's a risk of that money being held up in bureaucracy, red tape. We need it out there with the whanau. - So let me put the question, then, to you this way ` has the money started flowing out to where it's required now or are you still waiting for things to happen? - We're still waiting for the billion dollars that was announced in the budget. We have accessed 15 million through TPK. That was announced by Minister Jackson in Hawke's Bay during, you know, the response. But in terms of the fulsome amount of the budget, we're still waiting for that detail. - So at the moment, are you` is the iwi being asked to fill in, I guess` to fill in that Article 3 line where the Crown is still waiting for its processes to be undertaken? Are you at the moment` Is the iwi at the moment being asked to step in and fund so that things can get moving already? - We've just taken that roll up. Our iwi, our taiwhenua, our PSGE post settlement, governance entities have just filled the gaps, but we know $1 billion has been promised. We need to fix our infrastructure. We need housing. We need to support some of the whanau that have just been told, you know, they're category 3, 2 or 1. There's a lot of work to be done, and we really need that... those funding streams to be accessible quickly, especially by our people. - So are you part of the conversations now already? Is that happening? - Yeah, yeah. We've been working with our local government partners, all of the mayors in a collective agreement arrangement. We call that Matariki, and that is a vehicle for our regional recovery. However, we need to align that with central government to ensure that central, local government, iwi and local hapu representatives are working together. - So let's talk about the land classifications and the announcements that were made about a week ago now. Were you involved at any stage in that process before they were announced? - So I'm on the national taskforce for the recovery. So in terms of policy settings, we've been` I've been involved in some of that work. In terms of the classification of particular parts of our rohe, no, no. So we found out along with everyone else when that was announced and saw the maps along with everyone else and had all the questions, as did everyone else, our whanau. - So when were decisions made about Tangoio, for example, where other properties not far from Tangoio marae, and that community were classified as level 2-point-whatever; and Tangoio was in level 3 ` were you sitting there scratching your head going how did this happen? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had direct questions to regional council and district councillors. Me pehea ra tenei, tenei ahuatanga. Kia ri pai, kia ri tika. So we were told they're provisional; a couple of days' time, those will be finalised. But our clear message was, hey, we should have been part of that discussion before these maps came out. - So you will be a part of the map review process? - We've asked to be. We've asked to be. We've put a specific tono to our regional representatives to say we should have been there earlier; we need to be there from this point onward. - Can I talk to the wider issue? Because there's implications there as well around emergency response, in particular civil defence. So civil defence legislation at the moment ` there's no provision for Maori. You were doing emergency responses throughout the process during the cyclone itself. What would you like to see change? - We've been very clear that we're not part of the existing or the past legislation. I put in a word search ` 'iwi', 'Maori' ` karekau. We need to be there. We were first responders to our people. I mean, iwi, hapu, marae were a huge part of the response, and that cannot be overlooked. So we need to be part of any future korero as a treaty partner. We should have been there in the first place. - There's also, as a result of the impacts and the effects that whanau are dealing with now, the long term. How concerned are you about the long-term impacts of Cyclone Gabriel, what whanau are going through now in the build-up, as you say, to winter now, the long-term impacts of what they've seen and felt? - Yeah, I think it's gotta have an impact on whanau oranga, oranga hinengaro, oranga whanau, making sure that our kids are back into the routine, going to school, being in good housing, and at the moment, we are falling short, but we are working with whoever we can work with to ensure that those gaps are plugged up. Probably long term` And, you know, this isn't a sprint; it's a marathon. It's gonna take quite a while to get to the bottom of it. We've got infrastructure needs that are gonna take a long time to correct. Just having a bridge to Wairoa has been a huge achievement. But we need to house a thousand people that are either in level 2, category 2, another 250 that are in category 3. So there's a big workload in front of us. - Bayden Barber, chair of Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. Tena koe. - Tena koe. - Whai wahi mai koe ki a matua i tenei wa. Ke tau manaakitanga ki a koe. Bayden Barber, as I say, the chair of Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. Whai muri i nga whakamatuatanga e te iwi ka aronui tatou ki nga mahi whakarauora tangata ma te kaihauora. After the break on our Hui ` healthy home-cooked meals with Papatuanuku Kokiri Marae. - Huia, huia, tuituia mai ki ta tatou hui. Something special has been cooking in a whare kai in Tamaki Makaurau, hoping to better educate whanau on making healthy meals at home that won't break the bank ` Mangere's Papatuanuku Kokiri Marae has teamed up with a TV chef for the trial program that also aims to be environmentally sustainable. We sent our reporter Ruwani Perera along for a taste test. (UPBEAT MUSIC) - Let's see. Let's see. Let's` Oh, hello. - It's a community cooking class teaching whanau that fast food can be made at home and doesn't have to cost the earth. - There's a lot of need out there for our whanau. - We're helping people understand that things are cheaper if you do it like this. - Learning how to make healthy, tasty kai that's also zero waste. - It's going quite good. It's lovely as. - And here we are. We're doing it. - Right around. Right around. Yeah! Good girl. - It's the start of an exciting new food education program at Papatuanuku Kokiri Marae in Tamaki Makaurau. - This is emotional, cos this is like three years... of dreaming of this moment. Kia ora, everyone. So, today what I'm hoping to do for you guys is I want to give you some freedom. I want to give you some skills. I want to make you feel good about yourself. - TV chef Ganesh Raj has teamed up with the marae to encourage whanau into the whare kai and break the habit of eating expensive and unhealthy takeaways. - Fast food joints love it because people are gonna come back cos they're addicted to this food. It's not cos it's like it's some sort of 'I'll go to my` that meal for my fast meal, 'because it's nutritious and I'm getting`' you know, nobody says that. Four onions. That'll be the first job. When I say go, that'll be the first job is chopping the onions, OK? - Backed by South Auckland charity, The Cause Collective, the pilot classes hope to change people's mindset around kai. - Food needs to be seen as a medicine, or rongoa. - Go, go, go, go, go. - If we look at food from another perspective where it's something that heals us from within, man, you can't go wrong. - Once the patties are ready, I'll show you how to turn it on, and then we can start frying it. - Raj's food philosophy is about making global food that doesn't break the bank. His recipes are designed to cost 20 bucks to feed a whanau of four. - People have always been surprised. It says to me that they've been indoctrinated to think that food is expensive, cooking is expensive. So when something is cheaper than it, you're like, 'What? You can do that?' - Chefs of all ages and abilities have volunteered to take part in these night classes. (LAUGHTER) - Oh yeah. - How often would you cook at home? - To be honest, probably two days a week. Most of the time it's too lazy or just too tired, too knackered. And then to cook, clean and everything else at home, it's just, nah, we're just gonna go out and get takeaway. - The idea behind getting more whanau to cook for themselves is to make things as simple as possible. One pan cooking with everyday pantry ingredients. - Potato cakes with beautiful herbs in it, fried rice with vegetables. - Around 4 kilos of flesh from discarded fish frames and heads is being transformed into hearty family meals. - You've got so much meat off the fish frames, with the potatoes, with the fried rice. 20 bucks for four. - It's part of the Kai Ika Fish Rescue program. - Wednesday and Friday, we serve to the community. What probably would have went to landfill has now been given to our family who really respect it and really love it, and, yeah, you could tell by the lines. - Lines of cars queue up; the demand from whanau has grown in popularity as supermarket prices skyrocket. The urban Mangere marae's vision is to see their whanau flourish. Their Kaiwhakahaere Lionel Hotene has also been harvesting crops of veges and herbs from their extensive community garden to be used in the cooking class. What's cooking tonight? - We're cooking corned beef and kumara pasta. Straight from the garden to the table to the puku. - With Lionel, we both share this idea on how we'd like to feed people, how we'd like to use as much of the garden as possible at all times. It's like the dream scenario, but it'll feed people that need it. - Having someone like Ganesh on board, what does he bring to the kaupapa? - He's a ball of energy, eh. - People, if you wanna see stage two, there's a stage two over here. It's starting to brown up. That's what you're looking for. - I feel very humbled to have him in our space and, you know, being able to utilise our kitchen. It's a new kitchen, so, you know, perfect timing. - Golden brown. Golden. - It was just like divine intervention, you know? It's a dream come true. - And after two test cooks, these amateur chefs are giving the sessions rave reviews. - Oh, hello. - Oh, hello, chef. - These guys are` Oh! - How have you found tonight? - It's really good. I've enjoyed it. And this is something we're gonna go trial at home cos it's under our budget, so, yeah. - That's what the marae was intended for ` was to be more inclusive of our community and bringing them in and giving them new ideas, and I think it's really exciting. - It's better than mine. - (LAUGHS) - What's your hope for the future of this program? - My hope is to run it to the end of the year and then put different people through it. - Mmm, this is delicious. - We can see that this particular project will see our family, you know, looking after themselves better, because it's the ambulance at the top of the hill, you know, cooking, eating well, good diet. Mm. (GENTLE MUSIC) - Ka rawe, Papatuanuku Kokiri Marae. After the break ` he reti papa wira te tirohanga matua. Skills, skates and skuxx ` wahine Maori flipping the skateboarding script. (BIRDS CHIRP) Nature does her best work when humanity takes a back seat. (SERENE MUSIC) That's why we let the Earth infuse her finest scents into our fragrances. - Ehara i te mea he hui korero nui, he hui hakinakina noki tenei. Ngapuhi wahine Mieka Thomas has found her lifelong passion in skateboarding. When tragedy struck at the peak of the pandemic, losing her father and job, skating became her escape and therapy. Now she wants more wahine to give it a go. She talked to Meriana Johnsen. (ROCK MUSIC) - # Boy, don't play with me; I'm, like, 600 degrees. # You better look me in the face when you're talking to me... - Drop-ins, grinds, fakies and, of course, a few bails. These wahine skaters are working on landing their latest tricks. # Yeah, you know what's up. - Son Sk8 in East Auckland is the only indoor skate park in the whole country, and tonight it's the venue for the second ever Hui Nui, a skate meet organised by Maori Girls Skate. - Ooh! (LAUGHS) I always wanted it to be something where everybody's invited, but I wanted Maori wahine in particular to feel celebrated at these events. Yes, we can kick the music off. Let's go, guys. And maybe that brings me back to only seeing blonde, blue-eyed Barbie dolls when I was a kid, that I wanted to see people that look like me doing things that make me feel like I could do it too. (UPBEAT MUSIC) - A few years back, Mieka Thomas started posting her skating videos online, and that's where she connected with Wellington-based Bailey Maipi and Nelson-based Nerys Ngaruhe. - So we made an Instagram page, the three of us, to just sort of talk about what it felt like feeling like the only Maori girl skaters at the park. I mean, being a girl at the park is one thing, and being a Maori girl skater at the park, is an even smaller little niche. - The numbers of wahine skaters has grown massively since former professional skater Georgie Matthews first started out over 20 years ago. - To be honest, I was probably it, especially in my town. But from back then to now, the amount of support and community in skateboarding is, yeah, definitely increased. There's more girl skateboarders in the skate parks here than there is boys these days. - Why do you think there's so many more wahine skating now? What's changed? - One, like social media ` like it's now an Olympic sport. It's, like, publicised a lot more. You've got so many more events. It's a lot bigger. And I think with the girls, you know, we've got a bit more rough, you know, like, I think girls are getting the courage to try and take on, like, an extreme sport. - The former world number nine's competition days are behind her now, but she hasn't stopped skating. - It's a way of life, I think, for mental health. It helps me whenever I feel anxious or have got a bit of anxiety. You can even just go roll around for a bit, put some music on, or just go skating and listen to the rolling of the wheels. - And this is what helped Mieka through her darkest days. Her father passed away from diabetes in 2019. And then on top of that, she lost her job because of COVID. - A lot of the stress from losing my dad didn't help my state of mind. And then COVID hit, which didn't help anybody's state of mind. And it got so bad to the point where I actually lost all of my hair; all of my hair fell out. I developed alopecia. - # Cos our memories live on... - And skating again sort of got me through that. I realised none of the people I was skating with really give a toss if I've got hair or not. And it slowly started to come back. And it's been a big part of, like, my therapy and what makes me feel good and happy to be out there again. Oh! - Her community of Maori skaters also helped her find her roots in te ao Maori. - My mother is Dutch, so she comes from Holland. My father's Maori; he comes from Kaeo up north. And I actually grew up in Namibia, which is in south-west Africa. So I lived there until I was 17 years old with my sister and my parents. It was a small town in a little desert right next to the ocean, which is one of the few parts in the world you can see that epic combination of elements. - With her father's health declining and few options for education in the small town, her whanau moved back to Aotearoa, but coming home was also confronting. - I knew I was Maori. I could recite the fact of what my background was, but I didn't really identify with what that meant. And it wasn't until I did a photo shoot for a friend of mine ` she was a travel photographer, and she wanted to photograph some native Maori wahine, and she wanted me to do a photo with a moko kauae on. I remember after seeing those images, I felt like they looked so powerful, and I felt like a fraud ` like I couldn't represent this cos I didn't know enough about this. And I didn't want her to use the images. - This sparked a journey of reconnection to her Ngapuhi whakapapa and beginning to learn te reo Maori. - So I try and weave as much culture and reo into our sessions as possible, and that's helped me feel even more powerful to claim back that side of myself. Ready? Lock it in. - Now her passion has grown into a business ` Skateseen. - You got it! - It includes school skating programs for kids and all-ages workshops and events like Maori Girls Skate. So, in the spirit of giving it a go... - I'm gonna get you a board and the full kit. (LAUGHS) It's happening. It's happening. - All right, whanau, let's do it. - All right, let's do it. So this one goes on here. - I'm schooled up on the basics. - So jump on. Yeah. There you go. Make sure your toe is not too far in the middle. That's it. That's the spot. All right, let's go. There we go. Yes. Keep your knees bent. You've got it. - The newest honorary member of Maori Girls Skate. Mieka wants to continue to grow the kaupapa. - I wanna do more events. I just wanna get as much skating out in the community as possible. - And any ambitions of doing competitions? Olympics 2024 maybe? - I would like to see... a Maori girl in the Olympics. (LAUGHS) Oh! I think it's` - You? - I think it's too late for me. But if there's anything I can do to help get one there, I'll do it. - Awesome. - Kia kaha rawa ki a ia. Kia ahatia, kua iri ake a tatou korero o ta tatou hui ki konei inaianei. You'll find links to our stories on our Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts or at newshub.co.nz Hei taupoki ake i a tatou korero, he waiata na tetahi ropu Maori. We end with a delightful ditty from Valkyrie. It's called Te Aroha Ki A Koe. Kia mau ki te turanga o Taputapuatea. Haumi e, hui e, taiki e. (UPBEAT DRUM BEAT) - # Hey, hey, # hey, hey. (VOCALISES) # Hey. # Ae. - # Te aroha ki a koe. - # Hey, ae. - # Te aroha ki a koe. # Ka tu mokemoke no au. # Hoki mai ra, e te tau. # Mmm, yeah. - Hey! - # Warea tou manawa. - # Warea no manawa. - # Warea kia tata. - # Warea taku ki atu. - Ha! - # Tera hia te aroha. - # ...te aroha. # Manawa ru wai. # Marama kutea. # Te kura o te aroha noa. - # Ooh, yeah. - Whoo! - # Hey, # ae. - # Te aroha ki a koe. - # Hey, ae. - # Te aroha ki a koe. - # Mm. - # Ka tu mokemoke no au. - # Hoki mai ra... - # ...e te kau. - # Ooh, yeah. - # Aue... # Yeah, yeah. # Hoki mai ra... - # ...e te tau. - # Aue. # Hoki mai ra, e te tau. # Yeah. # Hey, yeah... # www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 - Ko te reo te take. - Na Te Puna Whakatongarewa Te Hui i tautoko.