Hon Tariana Turia

Associate Minister of Housing

SPEECH

2012 World Indigenous Housing Conference : Sharing our Stories; Sharing our Successes

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Indigenous Leaders in Senior Government positions

[the challenges and opportunities of being indigenous leaders within federal governments]

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

I want to begin by acknowledging the First Nations People who have welcomed us to your tribal lands and extended to us the spirit of generosity which has made us feel so at home.

We have travelled far, from the shores of Aotearoa to join with our indigenous brothers and sisters in this World Indigenous Housing Conference – to share our stories and successes – to make connections and to return to our respective homelands inspired and invigorated by indigenous solutions.

This is not the first time, such opportunities have arisen.

And I have been thinking of our tupuna whare at home – the ancestral meeting house on my marae at Whangaehu.

The name of our traditional whare, Rangitahuahua, is derived from the island Rangitahuahua where the Kurahaupo waka took refuge after becoming wrecked by a storm while on the journey from Hawaiki to Aotearoa. Rangitahuahua is more commonly known as Sunday Islands, located in the Kermadec Islands.

Every time we enter our meeting house then, we are reminded of our origins; the journey our ancestors made across the globe. We cherish the concept of safety and protection that is associated with this story – and we value the relationships that bind us together.

Our experience at Whangaehu is not an isolated one. Indeed, every meeting house of every marae of the hapū and iwi across our land, is rich with stories and images that retell the genealogy of those people. Often our meeting houses will be named after a significant ancestor.

Indeed, so closely associated are our traditional houses to our people that our architecture is often described in terms of body parts:

– tahuhu - the central ridgepole of the house – the backbone;

– maihi - the gables of the house are likened to the ribs;

– matapihi –the windows- are another name for the eyes.

It leads me to one of our commonly expressed views as Māori – He aha te mea nui o te ao : what is the most important thing? It is people, it is people, it is people.

The overwhelming importance that Māori place on the wellbeing of the people was recognised in the basis of our constitutional framework, Te Tiriti o Waitangi. From our founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, the Waitangi Tribunal, and subsequent decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council have enabled promulgation of what is described as Treaty Principles.

Some 25 years ago the Royal Commission on Social Policy crystallised these principles into three key concepts:

Partnership: the Treaty was a compact between the Crown and Māori, which required its partners to act in good faith with each other;

Participation: the Treaty required that each partner was able to participate in the affairs of the nation; and,

Protection: there was an obligation on the Crown to actively protect Māori interests.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi therefore established the basis for a partnership in which we would expect the Crown to work together with iwi, hapū, whānau and Māori communities in the rohe, to support the development of our strategies for success.

To enhance participation, we would expect Māori will be involved at all levels of the decision-making, planning, development and delivery.

The Crown duty of active protection applies to all the interests guaranteed to Māori under Article 2 of the Treaty.

We would expect therefore, that Māori cultural concepts, values and practices will be safeguarded as fundamental to the accord embodied in the Treaty.

I have taken some time to make these preliminary comments because in many respects they describe the relationship that the indigenous people of Aotearoa want with the Crown – and in turn, it defines the nature of the relationship we have as indigenous politicians, appointed as Ministers in Government while at the same time being a Co-leader of the Māori Party – the first independent indigenous political party to be in a Governing arrangement in a New Zealand Government.

In the Relationship Accord that the Māori Party signed up to with the National Party, there is a very important commitment made in the opening preamble:

The National Party and the Māori Party will act in accordance with Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty is our country’s founding document. It created a nation based on diversity and shared aspirations for future success and prosperity. Both National and the Māori Party are committed to working together to ensure Māori and all New Zealanders can enjoy a successful and more prosperous future.

It is an absolutely pivotal statement which has shaped the nature of the relationship we have as political partners in the 49th and 50th parliament.

But there is another statement of faith in our Relationship Accord that I want to also refer to:

The National Party and the Māori Party recognise the importance of mana maintenance and enhancement for both parties to this agreement.

The notion of mana is a quintessential element of being Māori. Mana tupuna defines us as a people – it is the bridge which links us to our ancestors, which defines our heritage. It is who we are; our genetic footprint; our history, and from whom we descend.

Mana whenua is the principle by which we have occupied lands by right of ancestral claim. It is a description of the places where we belong, and where we can contribute – it is essential to our wellbeing.

We have found, over the last four years of being in a Governing arrangement, that these statements of commitment provide us with the opportunities to advance the wellbeing of Māori across many spheres of influence.

It is through such a commitment, that we have negotiated Ministerial roles in Māori Affairs, Whānau Ora, disability, education, social development, corrections, health, employment, and of course housing.

And within each of these areas, we have been able to establish distinct gains for Māori that are derived from indigenous worldviews and based in cultural frameworks that resonate with our whānau – our extended families which form the basis of our communities.

A particular priority has been in the development of Whānau Ora. Whānau Ora is an inclusive approach to providing services and opportunities to whānau as a whole rather than focusing separately on individual family members and their problems.

Whānau Ora is about a transformation of whānau – with whānau who set their own direction.

It is driven by a focus on outcomes: that whānau will be self-managing; living healthy lifestyles; participating fully in society; confidently participating in te ao Māori; economically secure and successfully involved in wealth creation; and cohesive, resilient and nurturing.

In practice, it enables collectives to identify opportunities to enhance what they currently do and, at the same time, seek new and innovative opportunities to do things differently to support whānau to realise their aspirations.

I want to share just two quick examples of how Whānau Ora works in the context of housing.

The Moerewa Housing Project has enabled Ngati Hine, an iwi provider, to utilise their rural land base and their collective strength to provide housing for their elders, as well as whanau who cannot afford to purchase their own homes.

It is a shining example of how tangata whenua can contribute to the social housing needs of their community. Communities, and iwi had come together to create something that would not only provide a home for many whanau; but also served to bring people together, to harness our collective strength, and to lift the spirit of the community.

The second example is of a whānau referred to a provider collective, Te Whānau o Waipareira in Auckland city. The whānau were having problems with Housing New Zealand – they described their house as flea infested and were worried about the health of their children who were experiencing infected sores. The whānau worked with a provider, who connected them to one of their kaumātua, a respected elder, who accompanied them to meet with housing officials. During the hui, many issues were canvased – the impact of low income, health, social services to name a few. Following the talks, Housing New Zealand relocated the whānau to a better home, the whānau were supported with a budget planning process, and progress was immediate – including enrolling their preschool child in a Family Start programme.

These two different examples are just two of a huge range of solutions and aspirations that tangata whenua are coming up with, in setting their own direction. To me, the opportunity for our whānau to be self-managing, self-sustaining and self-determining is the ultimate outcome that I seek as an indigenous Minister.

Of course, the relationship between the Government and the Māori Party isn’t always without conflict – but that’s where the Agree to Disagree provisions in our Relationship Accord have proven invaluable.

Probably the greatest challenge has been in defining and interpreting what it means to live in a treaty based nation; what it means to describe ourselves as whānau; what it is to be Māori.

As a final example – where I come from we define ourselves by our relationship to our river. We have a simple saying – Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au – I am the river and the river is me. It represents the essence of who we are – our relationship to our lands, our mountains, our rivers, our sacred spaces.

While this may be a concept easily accepted in an indigenous setting, it is not so easily replicated in terms which non-Māori may immediately understand. And so it is, that for some of these central understandings which are encompassed in a Māori worldview, that we have come to see the telling of stories as a really important way of helping to cross boundaries, and create a shared understanding.

These stories of our people; our experiences; our values are therefore central to the establishment of mutually satisfying relationships. Indeed, in the Treaty Settlement process that many of our iwi have been immersed over the last few decades, the process of sharing stories has been fundamental to changing attitudes and a growing sense of acceptance of the distinctive experiences of the Treaty partners.

In this sense, the kaupapa of your conference - in Sharing our Stories – resonates beautifully with our way of life as indigenous peoples – and our relationships with others.

As an Indigenous Associate Minister of Housing the relationship I have with the Principal Minister; the relationships I have with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance; are crucial to our ability to make progress.

The key to any success we have enjoyed has been in negotiating both a Relationship Accord as Leaders; and delegated responsibilities as Ministers, which enable us the space and the resourcing to invest in the solutions of our people.

Only the test of time will be able to tell us just how successful we have been – but there is no greater motivation than to know that what we do today will hopefully create a better tomorrow for all our mokopuna – our grandchildren and their grandchildren after them.

Tēnā koutou katoa

ends

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