“I don't think I really wanted to get back in, because this last three years, I just feel like I've been in a fight,” Akuhata-Brown said from her Awapuni home.
“This term I actually felt like I went back to high school, where there was a really low expectation of me. And I struggle with that, because I'm so passionate.”
It was a tumultuous third term for Akuhata-Brown who, during her nine years at the council table, forged a brand for herself as a “vocal local”.
But her outspoken-style didn't always mesh with other councillors, and her last few years were fraught with difficulty.
In January 2020, she made headlines for resigning from the council's regional transport committee, saying she was tired of internal politics that had left her without a leadership position.
Then in April 2021, she was reprimanded by Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare for controversial social media posts about the Pfizer vaccine not being “effectively trialled”, while holding a position on the local health board.
This year, her relationship with the mayor soured after she voiced concerns to media that South African-born Rehette Stoltz was not the person to take the region forward because of her background.
She also claimed she had a “non-relationship” with Stoltz, who only gave committee chair positions to those who supported her 100 percent.
After a code of conduct complaint lodged by councillors Larry Foster and Debbie Gregory was upheld, Akuhata-Brown apologised for the comments.
Looking back, that series of events, coupled with the racism she experienced while in the role, almost tipped the scales for her to not seek re-election.
“One of the saddest parts for me was going through that code of conduct, sitting in front of two of my colleagues, sharing a little bit about what was going on for me, and it just being recorded.
“Like, ‘noted, Meredith was going through some mental health (struggles)'.
“And you realise, that's not really tikanga. It's not manaaki. It's just cold hard facts. There's no one going ‘oh, she had some really tough stuff'.”
It's a Tuesday afternoon when Local Democracy Reporting visits Akuhata-Brown at the family home she shares with husband Jason, and two of her three children.
The family dog, Lucy, is solely focused on one thing: getting someone to throw her deflated basketball across the yard.
Jason is working outside, but comes in to ask Meredith if she can peel some kumara for a boil up, which he'll cook outdoors because she doesn't like the smell.
“He's the boil up king, I tell ya,” she says.
Akuhata-Brown is enjoying her time away from politics, and is picking blueberries for now until she figures out what she wants to do next.
Her trademark honesty shines through over the course of one-and-a-half hours, and she doesn't hold back when talking about the council.
“When you make a stand on something, you have to be prepared to deal with the ramifications.
“I think that's how I've felt a lot of the time in the nine years — I've felt like an outlier. I was always making a stand.”
It was the last term that was the most difficult, she says, beginning with unsuccessful attempts at gaining chair positions on the regional transport committee and a seat at the Trust Tairāwhiti table.
Her June reflections on the mayor's suitability for the top position was the final nail in the coffin, she has decided.
“That was probably a huge part of why I didn't get re-elected. She (Stoltz) has a big voter base, and I'm pretty sure she wasn't promoting a vote for Meredith.
“She won't be missing me, put it that way.”
Aside from internal council issues, Akuhata-Brown says she experienced her fair share of troubles from the outside world too.
When she pushed to have Tūranganui-a-Kiwa reinstated as the geographical name for Poverty Bay, she was confronted by angry people on the street.
Racist emails weren't uncommon either.
“I never showed my husband or my kids. When you get that kind of angry outburst, you sit there going ‘my god, am I safe?'.”
As her difficult third term drew to a close, Akuhata-Brown couldn't decide if she wanted to seek re-election.
Despite reaching a low point in the middle of the year, she ultimately decided to throw her hat in the ring after two serendipitous moments.
The first came when she watched the movie Whina about matriarch Dame Whina Cooper, whose tireless fight for Māori rights included a fabled walk to parliament at the age of 79.
Then in July, Akuhata-Brown travelled to Palmerston North for Local Government New Zealand's annual conference where Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta talked about some of the obstacles she had overcome.
She was also buoyed by the thought of holding office alongside five newly-established Māori ward councillors, and hoped to provide support in their first term.
“I would have had friends in council. I would have had some mates!” she exclaims, almost in lament.
But it wasn't to be. Akuhata-Brown finished in ninth position in the general ward, a result she is philosophical about.
“Council needed me, for the time I was in. Because we would have seen more of the same,” she says.
“I yelled from the treetops when it was right. I fought hard to see Māori at the table of governance.”
Despite the challenges faced, she also hasn't ruled out a return to council, should the opportunity present itself down the line.
“It hasn't been a particularly uplifting space, but I have positivity as a strength. And I have A positive blood, so it flows in my veins.”
Following her election disappointment, Akuhata-Brown had been reflecting on a verse from the Bible which she'd based part of her initial campaign on. It is a passage from the book of Esther which reads, “you have been chosen . . . for such a time as this”.
On Tuesday, she noticed someone putting something in her mailbox, and discovered it was a gift from the council — the novel Kāwai, by Dr Monty Soutar, which details life in pre-colonial Aotearoa.
Picking up the book, she couldn't believe what she saw. Emblazoned on the front of the book were those same words: “for such a time as this”.
“It kind of whacked me in the face. It was a reminder of who I am, and why I was in that space. It was a settled sense of peace.”
