A summit focused on improving health, education, leadership and economic development in Northland will also see the launch of a programme designed to pair young people with mentors such as Cliff Curtis.
The three-day event in Waitangi from today is being run by The Moko Foundation, an organisation founded by Navilluso, a medical business company driven by Kaitaia GP and former New Zealander of the Year Lance O'Sullivan.
Moko Foundation chief executive Deidre Otene said the purpose of the summit was to look at pathways to improve health, education, leadership and economic standing in Northland.
"Those are key priorities for us as a foundation. In order to improve that there needs to be a collective push for economic development and there needs to be a strong Maori leadership voice now and into the future. So this is just the beginning for us."
Ms Otene said one of the reasons this was important to the region was because different iwi in Northland were in different stages of achieving Treaty settlement. Some had settled while others, like the Ngapuhi settlement, had halted.