- Heua, heua. Heua te pou o te whare o Te Hui kia tu tangatanga. He kapua whakairinga ra tatou ki runga i a ia. Ko Te Hui tenei kia tupea mai kia piri, kia tupea mai kia tata. Whano, whano, haramai te toki. Haumi e, hui e, taiki e! This week on The Hui ` we're on the beat with the Maori Wardens. - It's very tiring, very tough. It can be stressful sometimes. - Through natural disasters, festivals and community crises, they show up. - That's the whole reason of us to put that rangimarie out there. - And Ngati Kahungunu chair Bayden Barber talks about the Maori economy, rebuilding after Cyclone Gabrielle and buying back their maunga. Plus, we meet a young, inspiring farmer from Waima, whose deep passion for farming and connection to the whenua has earned him well-deserved recognition. Why did you choose farming for mahi? - I enjoy being outdoors. I enjoy being on the land. My father's a farmer. My grandfather was a farmer. So it's just been passed down through the generations. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2025 - Nga mate o runga i o tatou marae purara, purara, haere mai, haere. Tatou kei te ao marama. Tihewa mauri ora, and welcome back to The Hui. Maori Wardens are ever-present in our local hapori. From the marae to community events and national emergencies, they're always on hand to support whanau. Recently, Green Party MP Tamatha Paul claimed Maori Wardens were better suited to carrying out beat patrols, rather than police, because the police made some people feel unsafe. So how do Maori Wardens see their role in keeping our community safe? Mea nei te purongo a John Boynton. (ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC) - It's a wet day out in Tamaki ki te Tonga. Thomas Henry is keeping a close eye on proceedings. What do we have here, Thomas? - We call this the operations centre. The nerve centre. - He's leading a team supporting Polyfest in Manukau. - # Ki te taiao. # Ki te ao marama e! - How big is the team here today? - Oh, look, it's big. At least 30 Wardens on the ground. - Thomas is a Maori Warden. He has a special role here. What would you say when someone asks you, what is a Maori Warden? - A Maori Warden is someone that is going to be your best friend, is going to look after you. - Thousands of spectators are converging here at one of the largest Polynesian festivals in the world. - 50 years of celebration of different cultures. And that's who we are. We also celebrate that with our different cultures, of being a part of our community, to manaaki and put that korowai over our whanau. And we're just about ready to break for lunch. So we're going to have an influx of Maori Wardens come up, and they're going to be hungry. (CHUCKLES) - Since the 1860s, Maori Wardens have been around, helping to keep law and order in our communities. Officially entrenched in law in 1945, they've been an integral part of Aotearoa's most important moments in history. Today 900 Maori Wardens are serving communities right across Aotearoa. It's hard work, and they're not getting paid. - It's very tiring, very tough. It can be stressful sometimes. - They are volunteers who provide support for local events, tangihanga, hospitals and courts. And they were an essential part of the COVID-19 response. I've been a Maori Warden just on 25 years. I've been through eight national events, with the earthquakes, you know, the Operation Rena, we were in the Operation Gabrielle, when it hit Mangere ` our kaumatua and kuikui, they wouldn't leave, because they didn't want to leave their animals. And the police said, 'Matua, we need you fullas to go into this address, because they won't leave.' I said, 'OK. We'll go down.' - That close bond with communities, a foundation of their mahi. - It is about our people. - But who should be keeping those people safe? - # Woop-woop! That's the sound of da beast. # Woop-woop! That's the sound of da police. - The heavier visual presence of police does not make people feel safer. - Green Party MP Tamatha Paul slammed police patrols in Wellington. - It makes people feel more on edge. - Political leaders were quick to slam her back. - She can say what she likes, but she's totally insane. - I thought that Tamatha Paul's comments were ill-informed, were unwise, in fact were stupid. - It's la-la-land stuff. - I don't think there's mistrust around the police doing their job. If they weren't community-minded, they shouldn't have taken the role on to be a police officer. - I think that the police should be responding to incidences of domestic violence, sexual violence, things that only they can do. I think beat patrols is an easy thing that can be substituted for by Maori Wardens. - Well, Maori Wardens have increased their presence, so they work really closely with police. Um, and they're out there as well. But you cannot expect Maori Wardens to step in and do the role of a sworn police officer. - Thomas says there's even more need for police now. - Things are changing. The violence, the shootings, the ram raids, the mental health issues that we're having. We're seeing all that. - The Wardens' close relationship with police often comes under attack. - We're not always liked by our own whanau. I know this is our whenua, but we've gotta look after one another, making sure that... We don't want anybody to be arrested. (GENTLE MUSIC) - With recent tensions around community safety, the Maori Wardens are running a whanau event here in the heart of Mt Wellington on Panama Rd. - No reira, whanau, kia kaha, kia maia, kia manawanui i tenei ata ki te Whare A-Io. - I'm in my element. And this is where I like to be, is in my element. Just to see the smiles on kids' faces, the community coming together. - The free event is also recognising the hard times whanau are experiencing. - There's no work, and times are getting hard. Rent's being squeezed. Power's being squeezed. Even trying to put kai on the table is hard. - The Maori Wardens are really appreciated, and everyone knows everybody, so it's nice to have them here, and they're better to look after us than anyone else. - There are mixed feelings about police presence on these streets. - The police aren't in the neighbourhoods enough to be part of the community. - I don't mind the police. I feel like they're only bad to you if you're bad to them. So if you do good, then they're gonna be good to you. - Whereas police, they've got that uniform that just sort of makes you think, 'I'll get in trouble.' When the police are around, you feel like they're the sharks, and you might get in trouble with them. But the Maori Wardens, you can go and talk to them. They're like the dolphins. - Here we go. Here we go. Come and get your prizes. - At the end of the day, police are public servants, and we also need to respect the law so we uphold safer communities. Individuals, families, we're all part of a bigger ecosystem. - A part of that ecosystem for the Maori Wardens includes the business sector. - What do you have in mind, in terms of, like, the starting time? - After a spate of ram raids, Papatoetoe business owners reached out to the Maori Wardens. - In the testing times like we've got now, we need all the support. - The Wardens will soon be running a patrol six times a week through Papatoetoe Town Centre. - They have a deeper understanding of the issues that really come with a lot of the people who come in as offenders. This will bring mana to our world as well. And with that relationship, not only the safety, but also we want to develop a deeper relationship with the local Maori community as well. - The Maori Wardens, a lot of them are volunteers. Is there too much pressure on them? - We all know resources are stretched. But I mean, so far, they've been a great support for us. - It's great help for us. And again, I'm really thankful to Maori Wardens. - Thomas Henry knows the reputation of Maori Wardens will be key in making a difference. - That's the whole reason to put that rangimarie out there. Cos every time when we go out there, they know straight away, 'Oh, yes, the Wardens are out, making sure that things are going to be safe.' - Me mihi ki nga Watene Maori ka tika. A kati, taro kau iho ana e hoa ma. Ko te tukemata o Kahungunu, ko te tumu hoki o te iwi. The re-elected chair of Ngati Kahungunu is with us, next on The Hui. - Hoki mai ano e nga iwi ki ta tatou hui Maori. Ki ta tatou hui Kahungunu inaianei. Last Friday Ngati Kahungunu re-elected Bayden Barber as chair of the iwi for his second term, beating deputy chair Thompson Hokianga. It will continue to be a big job stewarding the third-largest iwi in Aotearoa through generally tricky economic, political and environmental times, as well as fighting to return the iwi ancestral maunga, Kahuranaki, and the ongoing rebuild work following on from the devastating impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle. So the chair of Ngati Kahungunu, Bayden Barber, is with me now. E kara, tena koe. - Tena koe. Tena koe. - Nau mai. Me mihi, tena koe whakawhiwhi ano koe ki tera turanga inaianei na. Is that a symbol, do you think, of the want of the iwi for stability and security in what is, I guess, turbulent and tricky times, Bayden? - Yeah, I think so. I think the last three years have been tricky, um, challenging. We had Cyclone Gabrielle. We had some major reform in our economic, our commercial arm of the iwi. And, yeah, we've got a government that is challenging, so... I think our people have seen the mahi that's been done in the last three years and want to continue that going forward. - Do you think also, it's a sign of the fact that they like someone who's prepared to make the hard calls? Takitimu Seafood was a hard call. - Yeah, there was a number of hard calls in the past three years. Yeah, I think our people are saying we've got to make hard calls. because if we don't, ko tatou te papa, ne? And, yeah, we've been prepared ` our board, our boards have been prepared to make the hard calls. And I think it's started to show, ka puta mai he hua ` we're starting to see the fruits of making those calls. - And also interesting in terms of some of the other elected representatives now. You've got some young ones in ` Crystal Edwards in; also Esta Wainohu; Anthony Tipene-Matua is another new board member. So you'll also be leading a new, some would say refreshed board. Is that going to be a different kind of challenge, as the leader? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it will be. The last election, myself and Thompson were the only new members on the board. So we had pretty much an old board coming through. Now, half of them are new. I look forward to the challenge, actually. I think it's time to have some new blood and different perspectives, because the challenges we face are different. You know, this generation ` we've got a new generation coming through ` they see things from a different lens. You know, our kaumatua, some of the longest-serving board members ` ka pai tera ` but I think having some new whakaaro, I think it'll be good for the board and good for the direction of the iwi. - What is the biggest challenge that you're facing right now? - I think we've got the geopolitical stuff, we've got the national politics. Um... you know, we've got challenges on Maori Wards. But for Ngati Kahungunu, we've got a rapidly growing iwi that are looking for opportunities, in terms of jobs and employment, economic growth, papakainga housing. I think they're looking for, um... you know, kotahitanga ` I would definitely say kotahitanga. We have seven PSGEs. We have six taiwhenua. We have Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. So do we kinda knit that all together to drive our people forward? You know, that's probably the big challenge. - Those are big challenges. You've also got an issue of a tupuna maunga in your takiwa that very clearly many of the iwi want return back into either iwi ownership or in some form or shape in a different way than it is now, in private ownership. Is that going to happen? - We want it to happen. Um... it's an open-tender, open-market tender process, so, at the end of the day, the sellers have the last say. But I think... We had the owner, um... she came to the powhiri, the hikoi up the Kahuranaki maunga, and I spoke to her afterwards ` 'How did you feel, with all our people there, the powhiri ` how did you feel?' She felt touched. She felt the wairua. She felt the mana, the mauri. And I said, 'Well, you know, hold on to those feelings, cos... 'ideally, we'd love to have a direct negotiation with you. 'We don't want this going into foreign ownership.' The last farm that was bought, a month ago, is gonna be turned into a pine forest, you know. So people are looking for overseas investment opportunities. We're saying, 'We want it back. We'll look after you. Talk to us.' - Is that going to happen, do you think? - Yeah, I think so. I think so. - I know I'm putting you in a difficult position, cos you don't want to divulge everything. - I hope so. We've kinda sent a strong message to the family that we are highly motivated and we're willing to... to look after them monetary wise, but also the relationship between the family and iwi, hapu and marae. - Can I ask you a question about how do you strike the right balance between managing those cultural imperatives? I mean, this is important for the iwi, but also you've got to get commercial return. You know, I mean, the days of 10% ` I mean, that's tough, right? 7%, particularly with tariffs, would be great. 5% is probably more achievable. How do you strike that balance now, Bayden? - It's a hard one. I mean, we have commercial people looking over the return from the farm, the station. You know, you're looking at 2%. You're looking at 2% for farming at the moment. But the cultural imperatives, I think, outweigh the commercial. And we just have to find a balance to make it work. I mean, if we could get the station to wash its face, ka pai, ka pai. And I think... the opportunity only comes up once every hundred years. I mean, 1854, the land was put into Pakeha ownership. But it's been with the Greenwood family for a hundred years, so we need to take the opportunity. We need to take the opportunity. - And if I take what you said about the geopolitical climate and tariffs and Trump and all that kind of stuff and insecurity that abounds with all of that, which is going on at the moment. Do you think the time is right now ` Tuku Morgan has talked about a Maori bank ` do we need a Maori bank now, Bayden, to ensure that iwi, nga hapu o Kahungunu, nga whanau o Kahungunu can get access to the capital that they require to be able to do the things that they value? - Yeah. I think we need... we need access to capital. Maori need access to capital. It's been a long-standing issue. We've been working with this government and the previous government to try and do that. Whether it forms in the form of a bank, I'm not too sure. I mean, banks, you need plenty of capital for a bank. But if we can get access ` because these opportunities are going to come up. Farming is on a plateau, even a bit of a dip. So people are going to be looking into the future. Stations are going to come up. Maunga are going to come up. How do we access capital to be able to make quick decisions around that? So I think we do need a bank of some sort. - What is it like dealing with this current government? - Oh. Um... it's difficult. Because they haven't been listening to us, you know? And when you've got a partner kare ratou mo te whakarongo, you know, it's kinda like having a one way conversation with yourself. And that... We're gonna get nowhere with that. So we need to be able to talk. We need to be able to put our kind of ideas in front of this government. Um... because I've... I feel, and I think, and I believe that the best interests of Aotearoa, the future of Aotearoa is here with iwi and kawana, Maori and kawana. I mean, we're big players in the business world. Well, you've seen the reports for the Maori economy. We've got huge asset bases. There's huge opportunities to work together with this government. And Tainui-Waikato striking that deal, straight off the bat of that foreign... - Infrastructure symposium. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Do you see that as a rising tide floating all ships? - Totally. 100%. - $126 billion, 9% GDP, right? There's opportunity. Can I talk to you about another form of government? It's local government? One year on now, and a bit, from Cyclone Gabrielle last year. You talked to us last year about the need for local government to consult and work with iwi ` not just consult, actually to work with iwi to help protect the community, to be able to deal with emergency events like Gabrielle. Has that changed? - Uh, I think... Well, the issue is we're not in the legislation. So we've got Minister Mark Mitchell consulting on the civil defence legislation at the moment. If we can get hardwired into that, it will change. But, you know, we just can't have these conversations ` 'Oh, yeah, we wanna help Maori me te mea,' but we're not in the legislation when it happens. They don't need to talk with us unless we're hardwired into it. So I think everything will fall from that. If that happens, yeah, ka pai. If it doesn't, we're gonna struggle. - And if another emergency event happens, we could see the same devastating impacts of an event like that again, do you think? 100%. I think, you know, people can see the benefit of working with iwi, with hapu and marae. We're the first responders That's what we did at Gabrielle. But the legislation, the way that it's currently written, they don't have to talk with us. They don't have to fund us. They don't have to partner with us. So we need to change that, legally. And then, yeah, ka pai, let's have a talk. - E te tiamana, tena koe. Tena koe i whai wahi mai koe ki a matou. Really appreciate your time being in studio with us now. E mihi ana. - Thank you. Kia ora, Julian. - That was, of course, the chair of Ngati Kahungunu, Bayden Barber. After the break, we are in Hokianga ` Waima, to be exact. Whakatere, Te Mahurehure, and farming, with Coby Warmington, after this. - Kia ora mai ano. The late Parekura Horomia was instrumental in encouraging young Maori to enter farming as a career almost 20 years ago. And in 2012 Dr Pita Sharples helped initiate a competition to inspire these rangatahi, known as the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer of the Year. This year three finalists will learn on the 6th of June who will earn that title for 2025. So we went up to Waima, in the Hokianga, to talk to one of the finalists, Coby Warmington. (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC) State Highway 12 runs down to the stunning shores of the Hokianga Harbour. And just to the south lies the tiny community of Waima. - Waima's a beautiful place. Yeah, I was born and raised here. It was a great place to grow up. - I'm here to meet local farmer and Young Maori Farmer of the Year finalist Coby Warmington. Tena koe, brother. - Kia ora. Kia ora. - Tena koe. Tena koe. Haere mai. Haere mai. Have a chat. Have a chat. Thank you for having us at Waima Topu Beef Farm. Congratulations. You're a finalist in the Ahuwhenua Young Farmer of the Year category. What's that like? - Yeah, it's a steep learning curve. I've had to learn how to speak to people and... yeah, try and get my thoughts across in a better way. But yeah, it's been good. I've learned a heap. - And what would it mean to win the award? - Definitely would like to show people that you can work from home, develop your career. And yeah, it would mean a lot if I won the award. But I'm still proud just to have made it as a finalist. - Do you reckon the people of Waima are a bit proud too? - Oh, heaps of people have congratulated me and said they're proud, so yeah, I'm pretty sure they're proud. - Why did you choose farming for mahi? - I enjoy being outdoors. I enjoy being on the land. My father's a farmer, my grandfather was a farmer, and his father before him was a farmer, so it's just been passed down through the generations. - How hard is it? - To be a farmer? Not really. It's a lot of common sense. If you can do that right, then you'll be all right farming. - But what about people like me, who don't have common sense, Coby? - You'll learn the hard way, I think. (LAUGHS) - Is it a hard job? - Yeah, there's different things about it that are hard, yep. Everyone's got an opinion. (BOTH LAUGH) So I have to make sure my decisions are made using facts and supported by evidence. It keeps us busy, keeps us out of trouble. - The workers on the farm, they're from Waima? - Yep. - All whanau? - Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. - So what's it like working with whanau? - It's good. I love seeing the benefits of skills being transferred into our community and people in our community developing from what we're doing here on the farm. So when we get people coming out of the community to help us build a water line or teach us how to do the fencing and stuff, we've got our workers here taking on those skills, and they're able to carry it on throughout the community. - The Waima River is just up the road, and that's a water source. - Yeah. - Right? For whanau. So how do you protect the river as well as trying to do what you're doing? Big mahi. - We're trying our best to mitigate any negative effects we have on farming. First thing we do is keep the stock out of there. Everything we do, we have that in the back of our mind ` how is this going to affect our waterways? When we make decisions with fertiliser and stocking policies and all that, that's what we're thinking about. We're fencing off our waterways, erosion-prone areas and planting them in native plants, yeah, to try and stop any sediment loss or nutrient loss into our streams. Sometimes we have to think about which areas we're going to develop, if those areas are culturally significant to our people, and which areas to leave out of development. Yeah, there's a couple of pa sites throughout the farm. Yeah, we just try and preserve them and leave them alone. - Because you're deeply involved in the community here, eh? - Yeah. We try our best, yeah. My family's really marae-orientated. We like to be active in the community, working at the marae, with the sports clubs and helping out at the school whenever we can. - I heard a rumour that you were a bit of a gun rugby league player. - (CHUCKLES) Not that good, but I enjoy playing. Yeah, it's good for exercise and that. - Because I hear you're coaching. - Yeah, we coach the Taiki under-12s last year. Very enjoyable, coaching the young fullas and that. - What's the big dream, Coby? - The dream of building this into a place where we can develop our young people and where we can train our rangatahi on the farm. We need to first make this a profitable business, and then we can take on our young ones and show them how to be good farmers. We're getting there. But yeah, I love it. I love to see the development in our people through farming. Just hopefully our kids can see a good role model and can see that farming can be a pathway for them to move forward in their lives. - E mihi ana. And congratulations to all the finalists of the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer of the year section. The winner will be named on June 6th. Hei te wiki e tu mai nei e hoa ma ` coming up next week on The Hui. She's a world champion. - Lani Daniels! (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) - She won SAS UK. - That was way harder than what it looked like. - Now, for the first time on The Hui... - People will probably think I'm, like, mad. - ...she lets down her walls... - I suppose when you don't care, you can't be hurt. - ...on her family... - Oh... (CHUCKLES) Normally I'm quite good at talking about him now. - ...and her coach. - I feel so grateful for what he's done for me. And I think, why? (CHUCKLES) Like, why do you do it? (DRAMATIC MUSIC) - I think that's the fight ` it's you versus you. - Mean! Our thanks to all our pukorero for today's Hui. Join us next week for that and much more. Kia mau ki te turanga o Taputapuatea e te iwi. Haumi e, hui e, taiki e! Captions by James Brown. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2025 - Ko te reo te take.