I represent Te Rūnanga o Koukourarata; mana whenua interests and values, and bring context. I also bring operational knowledge, like how things work on the ground.

Offering my Te Ao Māori perspective – it can be a little bit overwhelming, because everyone’s like, ‘what’s the Mātauranga’, and I’m like, ‘oh God. don’t ask me. I’ve only got MY Te Ao Māori perspective.’ It really comes down to me trusting that my intuition is correct and knowing who to turn to for advice within my whānau and hapu.

My blood is in that whenua. It’s a bit scary sometimes actually acknowledging who I am, because I whakapapa everywhere. It’s a huge amount of responsibility to actually be that person.

My grandmother was brought up in a traditional way. She was a teacher and the matriarch of her family; she held a lot of Mātauranga. It’s her mana that allows me to stand in front of all of these people. I often think about where I would be, if I’d had the opportunity to hear all of her stories before she was diagnosed with dementia, when I was 12. 

Over the last couple of years, I’d just gotten really lost, not really sure what to listen to – there’s a lot of noise out there, right? Because everyone has different expectations and perspectives.

But everything is already within me. It’s already true. I just have to know it and believe it. I’m doing this for the love of it and for my taua basically, she’s the one that keeps pushing me to stand up.

One of my mentors reminded me recently – and it’s stuck with me – is that you can’t raise the mauri and the mana of the whenua, the waterways or the moana, without raising the mauri and the mana of the people. So one of the things that I push on the board is, how do we bring the people along on the journey with us?

I’ve finally found my way of being of service to my people, in a way that’s of service to me and my whānau and the communities that I really care about. It’s very cool.”