Rereata Makiha

Rereata Makiha, a respected figure with connections to Hokianga, Te Arawa, and Rangitane, has devoted his career to preserving and teaching Māori ancestral knowledge, focusing on astronomy and environmental science. His educational path began at Northland College, continued with social work at Victoria University, and was furthered with a Postgraduate Diploma in Business from Auckland University.

Known for his deep knowledge of the Maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar, Makiha has been crucial in sharing mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge), connecting traditional wisdom with today’s practices. His early learning in the whare wānanga, or traditional Māori institutions of higher learning, ignited a commitment to the oral histories and environmental insights of the Māori people​​​​.

During his eight years at Hokianga Wananga Korero Tuki Iho and throughout his retirement, Makiha has continuously taught korero tuku iho, using the ancient wisdom of the whare wānanga to educate. He organizes wānanga in Tamaki and Hokianga, conducted twice a month for ten months each year, spending his remaining time on golf​​.

Makiha has also focused on Indigenous wellbeing, showing how mātauranga Māori can improve health and sustainability. Through the maramataka, he encourages communities to live in harmony with the environment and understand the natural world better​​.

His work earned him the title of Senior New Zealander of the Year 2022, marking his significant impact on preserving Māori knowledge and influencing New Zealand society. This highlights the critical role of Indigenous knowledge in addressing current challenges like climate change and wellbeing​​.

Makiha’s efforts are a powerful example of the importance of ancestral knowledge and the role of Indigenous leaders in creating a connected, sustainable, and healthy world. His work is a significant contribution to global discussions on environmental care and wellbeing, inspiring future generations.

Te Ao Kapa

Iwi: Te Aupōuri, Ngātiwai, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti mē ngā iwi whānui ō Muriwhenua

Ingoa: Te Ao Kapa

Whakapapa of Te Kaha O Te Rangatahi:

Te Kaha O Te Rangatahi Whanau o Tamaki Makaurau was founded in 1990 and registered Charitable Trust in 1992 by a collective of dedicated women in response to concerns about teenage pregnancies.

In 2019 we began trading under Te Kaha O Te Rangatahi Indigenous Youth Hub. We specialise in delivering to all rangatahi with a focus on Māori and Pasifika rangatahi and their whānau within the Tāmaki Makaurau region.

We believe in educating and developing our rangatahi to become Champions of Change and to take care of their where tapawhā

Our Vision
Mana Rangatahi

Our Mission
Kia whakapumautia te oranga o te rangatahi,

Kia hua, kia tupu, kia puawai

to enhance the wellbeing of youth, to grow, develop and prosper

Our pou or priorities are:

• Rangatahi Wellness – Rangatahi wellness is the vehicle of understanding and navigating rangatahi feelings and emotions. It’s re-connecting to what they are disconnected to, ā hinengaro, ā wairua. This includes wānanga in: Mental Wellness – Providing tools for rangatahi to navigate their feelings and emotions using creative outlets.
• Rangatahi Health – Rangatahi health, provides a space to increase awareness and understand the importance of mātauranga, to ultimately become advocates and change agents. This includes wānanga and support in:
  • Te Ara Tika ki te Hōkakatanga (Sexual Health) – providing information on sexual health for Yr 5 – 13 within education settings, an 18+ space for rangatahi to further their knowledge, as well as group settings and connecting rangatahi to sexual health services
  • Taurikura (Physical + Nutritional Health) – building rangatahi knowledge and awareness of nutrition & physical activity
  • Hā (Respiratory) – Connecting rangatahi to local health providers, and also assisting with Auahi and Vape Kore journey
  • Pā Harakeke (Hapūtanga & Parenthood) – Antenatal wānanga for māmā and their partners / support person and postnatal activities
• Rangatahi Development – Rangatahi development will excel rangatahi into flourishing and developing an extensive tool kit to put their best foot forward when making decisions. This includes wānanga and support in:
  • Tohu Mātauranga (Education / Study) – Assisting rangatahi to identify a career pathway and study options towards this.
  • Mahi (Employment) – Providing practical skills to help rangatahi into employment
  • Pakihi (Business ownership – Entrepreneur) – Connecting rangatahi with resources and networks to assist them with growing their own business
  • Kāinga (Home Ownership) – Connecting rangatahi & whānau with networks to assist them in their journey towards home ownership
• Rangatahi Knowledge – Rangatahi knowledge explores rangatahi abilities and capabilities and placing rangatahi and whānau into a position of prosperity. This includes wānanga or building knowledge in:
  • Pūtea – Basic Financial Literacy
  • Planning / Goal Setting
  • Health & Disability Code of Rights

 

Hon. Nanaia Mahuta

As former MP Nanaia Mahuta served her constituency of Hauraki-Waikato for 27 years. She held various spokesperson roles and was the first woman to become Minister of Maori Development and Foreign Affairs. Nanaia has stewarded through several changes to advance Maori aspiration and she is particularly proud of increasing Maori representation around council decision-making tables, uplifting Maori economic participation through social procurement and profiling indigenous economies through indigenous collaboration agreements and specified chapters of the UK and EU free trade agreements. Nanaia is a mother, strategic adviser, mentor, independent director and a fledgling writer.

Dr. Ash Puriri

Dr. Ash Puriri is graduant of the University of Waikato and completed his PhD, which is a doctorate that has broken new ground in business research.

Dr. Puriri’s PhD is an absolute first in terms of exercising an emancipated indigenous methodology for a entrepreneur business doctorate,” he says. “Management has long been considered and dominated by a Western methodology, coming from a scientific perspective and using qualitative and quantitative research methods, and now I’ve introduced a dedicated cultural empirical research methodology, kaupapa Māori methodology.” Dr. Puriri is highly published and is referenced internationally.

Dr. Puriri’s expertise and research investigated at Māori indigenous entrepreneurship in management and examined the design and integration of cultural values and processes that a are engaged when Māori develop business. A His PhD is highly referenced globally by Academics, Governments, and Heads of State, Business Leadership and Health Organisations, as a common outcome of his doctoral thesis included mapping the location and types of experiences, products and services that all Indigenous businesses require in business to be sustainable.

Dr. Puriri hails from, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rongomai-wahine, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Porou and Ngai Tuhoe, Te whare Tapu o Ngāpuhi Nui Tonu and is a founding business veteran of the cruise ship Industry for over 27 years and is still closely involved in academia. Dr. Ash Puriri is also one of the two Trustee’s of the National Hauora Coalition in New Zealand and
continually strengthens the presence of a voice of cultural authenticity and validity in health practices and business development with a global presence today.

Dr. Robert Joseph

LLB, LLM, PhD Waikato
Tainui, Tuwharetoa, Kahungunu, Rangitane, Ngai Tahu
Senior Lecturer, Research Centre Director MIG (Law), University of Waikato

Dr Robert Joseph is Māori from the Ngāti Kahungunu, Tainui, Tūwharetoa, and Ngāi Tahu tribes in Aotearoa New Zealand. Dr Joseph is an Associate Professor of Law at Te Piringa-Faculty of Law at the University of Waikato and was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 1998. Dr Joseph completed his PhD in Law in 2006 and he was a senior research fellow in Te Matahauariki Research Institute under Judge Michael Brown and a senior research fellow in the Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori Office at Waikato University under
Dr Linda Tuhiwai Smith.

Dr Joseph was awarded the ‘Best PhD Thesis Internationally on Canadian Studies Award’ in 2009 by the International Council for Canadian Studies for his PhD Thesis Dissertation: ‘The Government of Themselves: Indigenous Peoples’ Internal Self-determination, Effective Self-Governance and Authentic Representation: Waikato-Tainui, Ngāi Tahu and Nisga’a.’

Dr Joseph is the current director of the Māori and Indigenous Governance Centre at Waikato University, he has been a trustee on numerous Māori trusts and organisations, and he is a founding member of Te Taumata, the Māori Committee for the New Zealand Government Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2022, Dr Joseph was appointed by the High Court of New Zealand as a pūkenga (expert) to assist Cull J in the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 High Court hearing in Ngā Hapū o Tokomaru Akau v Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare CIV-2017-485-000247.

He was also a mediator in 2022 for Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) dealing with the return of Crown surplus lands under the Public Works Act 1981 in the Turangi township. From 2021-2022 Dr Joseph was also appointed an Independent External Commissioner in the Independent Waikeria Prison Riot Inquiry under the Department of Corrections, and he was a member of the independent Arbitration Panel to determine ownership of four Māori land blocks in downtown Rotorua.

In addition, Dr Joseph has lectured internationally on Māori and Indigenous matters including at the United Nations in New York and at Harvard University. Dr Joseph is the current New Zealand representative on the International Inter-Tribal Trade and Investment Organisation (IITIO), he is a former Claude McCarthy and Fulbright Scholar, the latter at Harvard University and the University of Arizona, he is an expert witness, and licenced researcher and legal historian in the Waitangi Tribunal; a former Vice President of the Battle of Orākau Heritage Society Inc., and he has also worked with the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona, the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute in Brisbane, and at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at Australia National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia. In 2021, Dr Joseph co-edited and published the seminal Law textbook Joseph, R & Benton, R, (Eds.), Waking the Taniwha: Māori Governance in the 21st Century, (Thomson Reuters, New Zealand, 2021) 1025 pages.