Te Aroha Kanarahi Trust Report to Funders

AMC Trust, MSD, Eastern & Central Community Trust, Trust Tairawhiti, Todd Foundation, Spitfire, Gizzy Kai Rescue, JR McKenzie Trust, Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou, Ngati Porou Hauora, 7th Generation Fund

Ani Pahuru-Huriwai Te Aroha Kanarahi Trust 141 Onepoto Road (Hicks Bay) 4054 Email: [email protected] Ph. 021885602

August 2020

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Horahia e Matariki ki te whenua Te maramatanga mo te motu e Kia tipu he puawai honore Mo te pani mo te rawakore e

Shine thy glowing light of Matariki Onto Mother Earth As a guiding light for this land Nurture the bloom that it may blossom An honoured benefit for those in poverty and need Matariki in 2020, heralds for us at Te Aroha Kanarahi Trust, a new year full of promise. It signals that we survived the “unprecedented times” of COVID19, and offers hope that we will not have to go back into Lockdown. It is with extreme gratitude that we present to you, those funding groups and agencies who supported us in our most desperate of times, this report, encapsulating the mahi that was carried out during Lockdown. All of you, were critical cogs in the wheel, that needed to keep turning at what was a very stressful time. We wanted to present one combined report to all of you, rather than one per group, so you can appreciate the many different groups that contributed to our effort in Matakaoa. We especially want to acknowledge our Treaty Partners in the philanthropic space, who came to our immediate assistance from Week 1 – we cannot thank you enough. We also include in this report a “Where to from here?” for us.

E kore e mutu nga mihi ki a kotou te hunga whairawa, e aroha ana, e manaaki mai i nga hapori o Wharekahika//Waikura, hau atu ki , arā matau o te rohe o Matakaoa i te wa o te mate urutā.

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Table of Contents Te Whāinga Nui: Goal ...... 3 PRE-LOCKDOWN ...... 4 DIY Hand Sanitizer, Soap & Emergency Kit Workshops with Tairawhiti REAP ...... 4 DIY PPE Gear ...... 5 DURING LOCKDOWN ...... 5 Te Whakatū Rahui: Roadside Checkpoints ...... 5 Kai/Care Packs ...... 7 But Wait….There’s More… ...... 9 Wood Delivery ...... 9 COVID19 Mobile Testing Station with Turanga Health ...... 10 Emergency Kits sponsored by Trust Tairawhiti ...... 11 Whanau Day & Koha for Volunteers ...... 11 SINCE LOCKDOWN ...... 12 Maori Warden Training ...... 13 Te Whatakai a Hinemaurea: Food Sovereignty Plan ...... 14 HEI WHAKAKAPI: CONCLUSION ...... 14 APPENDIX I: Te Aroha Kanarahi Trust - COVID 19 Income & Expenditure ...... 16

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Te Whāinga Nui: Goal

“Keep Matakaoa COVID19 free; Keep our Whakapapa safe” Our communities in the northern part of the East Coast, tribal territory of Ngati Porou, are some of the most isolated in the country. Our people still remember the impact the last influenza epidemic in 1918 had on our population – it was decimated. That time is commemorated in the names of some of the descendants of those who died – Matekino, Materoa, Te Mamaeroa to name a few.

For those unfamiliar with the , we are 180km from the nearest “city”, Gisborne. Our main route is State Highway 35, the stability of which is questionable, and undermined with each passing weather bomb. We do not have a permanent GP, relying on locums and our terribly under-resourced health care provider Ngati Porou Hauora. Our lifelines literally are the St Johns ambulance & the Eastland Rescue Helicopter. Our communities are predominantly Maori, with very few whanau who are not affected by respiratory ailments, heart disease, diabetes etc, making our communities highly vulnerable and at major risk to COVID19.

So, when news of the virus spread, as we watched major cities of the world come to a complete standstill and saw fatality statistics rising each day, the anxiety for our communities heightened as the prospect of COVID19 coming into our piece of Paradise became a reality. As Kaitiaki of our place and space, we had no choice but to defend – by whatever means possible, our whakapapa:

• DIY Hand Sanitizer & Soap Workshops with Tairawhiti REAP • DIY PPE Gear

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• Te Whakatū Rahui: Roadside Checkpoints • Kai/Care packs • Emergency Kits to Whanau from Trust Tairawhiti • Mobile COVID19 testing stations with Turanga Health

It was 6-8 weeks of defence against an invisible enemy – COVID19. Our kaimahi giving selflessly to be soldiers on the frontline – away from their own families, putting themselves at risk every day. Because of their dedication, commitment and love for their whanau/hapu/communities we kept the virus out of our Paradise. And thanks to generous support from you, our funding friends, we were able to provide a great Whanau Day for everyone, and give each of our 89 volunteers a koha of grocery/fuel/gift cards.

PRE-LOCKDOWN

DIY Hand Sanitizer, Soap & Emergency Kit Workshops with Tairawhiti REAP

“Wash your hands, sanitize, sneeze/cough into your elbow” – familiar words that has become part of our new “normal”. What do you do when the whole country runs out of hand sanitizer? We learn to make our own and teach others to do the same. Through Tairawhiti REAP’s Adult Community Education DIY Hand sanitizer with rongoā base funding, several well attended workshops were run over 3 days, from Wharekahika to – using a rongoā base for the hand sanitizer and soap. Our tutor, Tina Ngata, also showed the whanau what they ought to have in an emergency kit. The programme gained media attention, with an article running on Maori Television, and soon we were receiving dozens of queries nationally and internationally for the recipe. This lead to a quick video being posted and shared through social media.

Key Hand Sanitizer ingredient

Making Soap DIY Emergency Kit

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DIY PPE Gear

Like the rest of the country, accessing PPE gear became impossible as the demand for it grew.

Not to be deterred, our rangatahi got involved, posting up instructions on how to make your own face masks out of paper towels, rubber bands & staples.

Tairawhiti REAP staff, SuperGrans and others in the community also got busy making masks for our frontline workers. Your funding support helped to keep our frontline workers safe, enabling us to purchase PPE Gear AND materials to make our own.

Thank you.

DURING LOCKDOWN

Te Whakatū Rahui: Roadside Checkpoints

Our decision as the hapu and community of Wharekahika to initiate Roadside Checkpoints in Ngati Porou, following the example of our Te Whanau-a- Apanui cousins and neighbours, was an obvious and immediate action we could take. This was initially not supported at all by our – quite the opposite, and that was an additional stress our hapu did not need at a critical time. So we forged ahead, engaging NZ Police, NZTA, and GDC, keeping them informed with our Traffic Management Plans, ensuring we had qualified personnel onsite with the health and safety of our people being uppermost in our minds.

Tina Ngata on Wharekahika Checkpoint

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“Education, education, education” – the Checkpoints were key to informing our Whanau every day about the virus, with critical messages to encourage them to stay home within the safety of their bubbles – “Is your travel essential?” “Make a list and go once per week”, “send one person to do the shopping for several households,” “The virus travels when we travel.”

The engagement with Police happened every day, and Police call into see how we're doing several times daily, with Tina Ngata managing the media furore, and the relationships with Police and Ministers on our behalf.Our neighbouring communities – Te Araroa, Ruatoria, and Uawa – quickly came on board with their own Checkpoints – some ran 24 hours, others during daylight hours only – we shared with them the resources we had in the form of templates; road safety equipment was kindly loaned to us by the Maori Wardens, and local roading contractors, TWC and Harrison’s Bulk Haulage Ltd; and we ran a highly effective and active Checkpoint chatgroup which kept everyone well-informed of traffic movement – essential and non-essential. Fearful of the volume of tourist traffic that continued to Rangatahi on Te Araroa Checkpoint with our ex-Army travel through the coast in Weeks 1 & 2, we sent an email surplus ponchos bought with COVID funding for the cold, wet nights to the Motorhome Association of NZ, requesting that they dissuade their members from coming to the East Cape, due to our highly vulnerable community. We were extremely grateful that this email was sent out to their 90,000 members, and had an immediate effect on the traffic volumes. Landowners of the access to the were asked to close that tourist magnet, and that too had significant impact. Our hapū across Matakaoa closed off access to the kāpata kai (or seafood cupboards) to quell the traffic flow locally and outside, and we also monitored the numbers of people travelling per vehicle. A massive amount of data was received from each Checkpoint every day – this was collated by Tina Ngata and sent to the Regional Police Commissioner. We sought support from the Police to help us keep our community safe, but until the law was changed allowing them to assist T.Ngata & K.Houkamau go over Traffic Management Plans us, we were operating outside of the law. We did that

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knowingly, but had to put our people first. At Week 4, we finally had the increased police presence we had been crying out for, and it remained with us until Level 2. As a result of this Wharekahika now has a formal relationship agreement with NZ Police to ensure that should a similar situation happen in the future, we are clear as to how best we can work with each other.

In Matakaoa we had 89 volunteers over the 6 weeks we were operating – who gave selflessly of their time, away from their families, in all kinds of weather, putting their own health and safety on the line for the welfare of others.

For our Checkpoint support, we wish to thank 7th Generation Fund, AMC Charitable Trust, GDC, NZ Police, Tairawhiti Maori Wardens (Road signage & cones), TWC Ltd (Road signage & cones), Harrison’s Bulk Haulage (caravan at Wharekahika checkpoint), Mark & Edna Caldwell, Joanne’s Grassroots (caravan at Te Araroa checkpoint).

Kai/Care Packs

“Na tou rourou, me taku rourou, ka ora ai tatau.” “With your food basket, and my food basket we will all thrive.” Two weeks prior to Lockdown the Port in Gisborne closed, and with it many of our rural whanau, reliant on forestry as employment faced the prospect of no work, with no idea of how long that might be for. Hinemaurea wharekai transformed into a packing house. Finding boxes was a mission in Te Aroha Kanarahi Trust and others in our community began in itself! earnest to fundraise at that point, at that time specifically for those whanau impacted by the forestry closure. We also began conversations with funders, as our situation looked more and more dire. We reached out to you, and you responded. We are also very grateful to Jackie Poutu at MSD, who responded very quickly to the emerging urgent situation we were facing. This help put critical money in the bank so that we could begin ordering food. New boxes arrive courtesy of Kiwiharvest For our small, isolated communities, 180km from the nearest supermarkets, during a crisis – it was a mammoth effort to coordinate, order, organise couriers, pack kai for up to 200 households and then deliver them. Very grateful to our tight but dedicated crew, lead by Arlouise Brooking.

The Te Araroa crew We cannot thank our kai suppliers enough:

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• Cedenco and Leaderbrand for their generous donations of vegetables and fruit. • Our local Countdown and Pak n Save stores in Gisborne were marvellous throughout the Lockdown period, as was Gilmours • Waikura Farms & Mataraua Station for providing processed meat every week • Hinerupe – kumara from their maara Ready to roll – Paula & Bibiana • Troy Apatu & Alex Whitehead – kamokamo from their garden • Supergrans also for their generous donations of kai, bags, scarves We are especially grateful to Joe Hutley of Spitfire Roast, and his sidekick Jase, who couriered kai from Hawkes Bay via Gizzy Kai Rescue, from Week 2-4. He then was our courier from Gisborne, ensuring our supplies were delivered every week until our kai deliveries ceased at Week 6. I also want to thank Anne Huriwai at Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou for keeping lines of communication open - as well as Leanne Jase delivers Gizzy Kai Rescue donations, Morice – they worked tirelessly under pressure from all of our Weeks 1-3 – up to 3 times per week hapu/communities to make things happen in a timely fashion with the powers that be. Nga mihi ki a korua e aku tuahine. At Week 3, we were joined by the crew from the Te Araroa Progressive Association, working as one to ensure that no one missed out on receiving kai. This doubled our packs from 100 to 200 households delivering kai to very remote parts of the East Cape, across rivers, along very dodgey shingle roads. For our delivery crew this was a huge commitment and your funding support ensured we were able to provide fuel for their vehicles. Leaderbrand donation – every week for 6 weeks We also want to acknowledge our local Te Araroa Eastern Store 4 Square who did an amazing job in ensuring their shelves were kept well stocked for most things; posted regular updates when supplies were running low; and put in place excellent measures inside and outside their store to keep the people safe. Taukē Rick & Roz! And also our local Hicks Bay General Store, who made sure our orders of bread and milk were never missed. We must also thank Kiwi Harvest who FINALLY came to the party in the Tairawhiti, at Week 5, and also NPH/MBIE whose pork deliveries seemed to be never ending from Week 5-8! While grateful, at a community level this was really stressful, as all of our kaimahi had returned to mahi. We were not able to be as responsive as we had Sanitation station been, and if we EVER have to do this again, would pray that the wheels of beauracracy would turn faster.

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Todd Foundation, ECCT, AMC Charitable Trust, JR McKenzie Trust, Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou, Ngati Porou Hauora, MBIE, Kiwiharvest – thank you.

Ngati Porou Hauora/MBIE pork donation Te Araroa crew ready to get on Meat from Mataraua Station the road ready to go

But Wait….There’s More…

Wood Delivery

Thank you to Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou & Ngati Porou Whānui Forests, for opening up Hoia Forest, enabling our pakeke (kaumatua) and whanau in need, access to much needed firewood. There were smiles a-plenty as these trailer loads of wood were delivered around our community.

This team was lead by experienced forester, William Pahuru and his crew of men, who relished the opportunity to come out of their bubbles for a couple of days, to get the job done for our communities.

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COVID19 Mobile Testing Station with Turanga Health

When word broke out that there were two positive Covid19 cases on the Tairawhiti, we immediately stood our Checkpoints down throughout the Coast at the request of Dr Willem Jordaan who was responsible for the CBAC unit in . As our Checkpoint frontliners were most at risk of the virus, all of our volunteers were immediately tested at Te Puia.

Feeling a bit vulnerable leaving our Matakaoa bubble, Te Aroha Kanarahi Trust advocated to get the mobile testing station to our area. The following week, the team arrived, a little overwhelmed by the steady stream of traffic that greeted them at Potaka, Wharekahika and Te Araroa – so much traffic they ran out of swabs twice in three days!

219 people lined up to get tested in Matakaoa – this was the result of weeks of education via the Checkpoints, kai delivery, and of course the daily updates from our Prime Minister and Dr Bloomfield. Also a little bit of incentive in the shape of a $200 Grocery voucher draw, for each community sponsored by you, our funders was also a huge draw card. We ran a competition called #GOTMYSWAB – people had to send in a selfie of themselves getting swabbed or with the Swabber. This was then posted on our FB page. We also ran a separate competition called #GETTINGMYSWAB – people had to post a video of what they were doing to pass their time in their vehicle while waiting to get their swab. There were some hillarious entries. The winner of this competition won an Emergency Kit sponsored by Trust Tairawhiti. This effort was also covered by the media, and other communities soon picked up the idea, helping to boost the numbers of our communities from Potaka-, who got swabbed during that time – a total of 657 people!

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Emergency Kits sponsored by Trust Tairawhiti Prior to Lockdown when news of the Port closure broke, I met with Liz Alder of Trust Tairawhiti about our needs at a community level. We are very grateful for their donation which enabled us to purchase quality emergency kits, 2-person & 4-person from Mitre 10. These were distributed to many whanau throughout Matakaoa – a luxury item that most would never be able to afford, but a necessity in emergency situations such as COVID19, but also for daily life in rural communities such as ours.

Whanau Day & Koha for Volunteers After a few delays due to weather, we FINALLY got to have our Whanau Day, on the 27th June 2020, held at Hinemaurea Marae. It was so good to emerge from Lockdown, and to celebrate with our volunteers, and their tamariki altogether again.

Thanks to your generous support, (and the kindness of the weather gods), we were able to give everyone a great day, with bouncy castles and Go-Karts for the tamariki (and adults) – live local music and a delicious hangi to round the day off.

Each of our 89 volunteers were given a koha of gift vouchers ( a mixture of fuel/grocery/ Warehouse), a small token of appreciation for

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the sacrifice each and everyone made, in taking time away from the their families, putting themselves on the line for the protection of our community/hapu and whakapapa, some for weeks on end. Our volunteers were completely unaware that they would receive anything – they gave of their time willingly with no expectation of reward, and every single person was so very grateful for the whakaaro.

I cannot express enough how wonderful it was to be able to recognise, in a small way that effort. We could never have done that without your generous support– JR McKenzie Trust, Todd Foundation, ECC

SINCE LOCKDOWN

During Lockdown we became starkly aware of how vulnerable as a community/hapu we were. We were too reliant on external suppliers and funders such as yourselves to get through this emergency situation. Where kai is concerned, we have an abundance of it all around us, but we did not/could not make use of that abundance. Where the Checkpoints were concerned, we did what we had to do, but it took a lot of time and energy to work through the politics and to get the Police, our local Council, and our iwi on board with us.

So, what are we doing to be better prepared for future events?

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Maori Warden Training

The Maori Wardens fall under the Community Development Act 1969, and have certain powers under the Act which, in Wharekahika, we believe would help ease our situation in the future.

We missed the presence of the Maori Wardens, during Lockdown, who all fell into the high risk category. Instead, we had kaimahi/volunteers, the majority inexperienced in traffic management, first aid, risk management. The majority of our volunteers were under 40 years old, and a high number under 30 years old, but they were hearty! Our rangatahi got to experience what it means to be part of a greater Kaupapa, what it means to put aside your own needs for the wellbeing of others, what manaakitanga, whanaungatanga and aroha ki te tangata looks like in practice. The Wharekahika Maori Committee (our Hapū leadership) supported the application by Tina Ngata and myself to the Tairawhiti Regional Maori Wardens for training to happen as soon as practicably possible post Lockdown. This was very out-of-the-box thinking, and we are very grateful to Owen Lloyd and Bub Apelu of the Tairawhiti Regional Maori Wardens, who worked closely with us – advocating for us with the Ministers Mahuta & Whaitiri, who also pushed to enable us to fast-track this process. So over Queen’s Birthday weekend, eleven members of our Wharekahika community came together at Hinemaurea Marae (with the blessing of the Marae Trustees) for three days of intensive training – in Traffic Management; Workplace First Aid; CIMS & Emergency Wardens. All of us have been Police vetted and next weekend have training in Security. The training thus far has been amazing, and we are grateful to TPK and Rob Whaitiri for helping to arrange the training and fund it. The tutors too were fantastic and we are humbled that they gave up their long weekend to come out of their bubbles for the first time to work with our community/hapu. We also look forward to sharing our learning with other whanaunga across the Coast, encouraging them into the Maori Warden movement that has been part of every Maori community for a very long time, and plays a critical role in keeping whanau safe especially in times of emergency.

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Te Whatakai a Hinemaurea: Food Sovereignty Plan Our reliance on others for the provision of food during Lockdown was scary. Not too long ago, every whanau would have had a mahinga (maara) kai; every whanau would have pooled their resources to ensure no one missed out; every station would have provided meat (one or two did this time); our ‘hunters, fishers and divers would have harvested kai for the whanau. Lockdown meant that our “normal” of going hunting, fishing or diving in times of hardship, was not allowed; we weren’t allowed out of our bubbles to interact with others. This made what was a hard time, even harder for many whanau.

But Lockdown also allowed those of us who travel a lot, time to sit, reflect and plan for the next time. And that plan for us, has come in the shape of Te Whatakai a Hinemaurea, a plan which incorporates our LORE with LAW; it enhances the mana of our people creating sustainable employment for our hunters and gatherers; it restores whanaungatanga; it values the pukenga of each of our hapu members; it puts our people and Papatuanuku first; it will enable us to exercise our rangatiratanga in times of adversity and hardship as whanau, as hapu.

Feeding ourselves well first – each household contributing to the outcome of health and wellness of our people, and thereby growing the capability of each household to be self-sufficient; Growing Grassroots business based on quality food, quality experiences; then Going Global – having built our capacity and capability enough to then begin to focus outward to our neighbours, our nation, and the world.

Te Whatakai a Hinemaurea will only be successful if it is built from the grassroots up, at hapu level, engaging all of our Wharekahika whanau. Building the capacity and capability of the ahi ka to govern, manage and operate all parts of the Whatakai is critical to long term success.

HEI WHAKAKAPI: CONCLUSION

“Why can’t we stay in Lockdown forever, we have never been so well looked after” Wharekahika pakeke

During Lockdown barriers that exist daily for “vulnerable” whanau came tumbling down in our Matakaoa communities – they had access to doctors every day; they had more police; they had food delivered every week; they were kept safe in their bubbles. As the lead community group for our hapu/community, access to funding became easier –high trust agreements were entered into; turn around time for acceptance was amazing; usual compliance challenges were mitigated; and in those unprecedented times, at a hapu/community level we were able to get on with serving as many of our people as we could, regardless of ethnicity, age, or income and focus only on keeping everyone safe.

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So it is with genuine gratitude that I submit this report on behalf of our communities of Wharekahika/Potaka/Waikura and Te Araroa. E kore e mutu nga mihi ki a kotou me a kotou rourou – mauri ora ki a tatau katoa.

Ani Pahuru-Huriwai

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APPENDIX I: Te Aroha Kanarahi Trust - COVID 19 Income & Expenditure

INCOME Grants – TRONPnui – Wharekahika/Potaka/Waikura 8,000.00

AMC Trust 5,000.00

MSD 20,000.00

Eastern Central Community Trust 10,000.00

Trust Tairawhiti – Wharekahika/Potaka/Waikura – Grab & Go bags 5,000.00

Trust Tairawhiti – Te Araroa – Grab & Go bags 5,000.00

Todd Foundation 7,000.00

7th Generation 16,131,63

JR McKenzie Trust 15,000.00

91,131.63

Koha Received – TKKM o Kawakawa mai Tawhiti – for kai packs 500.00

Te Kura Wananga – for kai packs 500.00

Troy Wheeler Ltd 500.00

J Te Reo 200.00

K Stainton 20.00

HR Dancer 100.00

R Sturkenboom 100.00

Tukaha Global 687.00

Total Funds received 93,738.63

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Less Costs

Grab & Go Bags – Wharekahika/Potaka/Waikura 4,998.85

Grab & Go Bags – Te Araroa 4,996.72

Checkpoint Expenses 3,510.14

Katcha Korero Covid 19 Edition 2,000.00

Printing & Office Expenses 1,867.51

Checkpoint Koha – Wharekahika/Te Araroa/Tikitiki/Ruatoria/

Tokomaru Bay / Hauiti 13,500.00

Prizes for COVID Testing 600.00

Cleaning Products to clean marae 372.55

Hinemaurea Marae Koha 3,000.00

Hinemaurea Marae – 2 8litre urns for marae 208.68

Volunteers Koha (Giftcards for Fuel/Groceries/Warehouse) 13,955.07

Volunteer Whanau Day 4,923.69

Kai Pack costs 38,846.61

Total costs 92,779.82

Surplus $958.81