Tararua District Council Māori Ward councillor Keshaan Te Waaka. Photo / Keshaan Te Waaka
By Pokere Paewai of RNZ
Keshaan Te Waaka, 21, has secured the Tamaki nui-a-rua Māori ward at the Tararua District Council, unseating incumbent Naioma Chase in a close race.
Te Waaka (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Porou, Te Atihaunui a Pāpārangi, Tonga, Croatia) said no particular person or event pushed her to put her hand up for council – she did it because no one in council looked like her.
“The simplest way I can put it, living in this area pretty much my whole life and not seeing myself in council was super concerning, and I didn’t want another generation to go through that.
“We have very little Māori in our council, let alone rangatahi, let alone wāhine, so that was really my drive.”
The Woodville native said it was a completely surreal feeling to find out she had made it.
“I wasn’t too sure how to react really,” she said. “Like, how do you act in these sort of instances?
“It’s definitely a first for me. I had never attended any sort of campaign event ever, so my first campaign experience was a meet-the-candidates event and the first one that I spoke at was actually in my hometown in Woodville.
“Very lucky and all my whānau came along.”
Te Waaka said, during the campaign, she had the chance to speak with some of the district’s rangatahi, although they tended to be more informal conversations.
“When everyone found out I was [going] for council, the common kōrero amongst the rangatahi was that I was going for mayor, because that’s the only position they recognise in council.”
She was eventually able to explain the role she was actually gunning for – the Māori ward – but she said many of the rangatahi didn’t know what a Māori ward was.
“I didn’t really get too deep into it, because I know that, when somebody talks to me about a kaupapa that I’m unsure of, blabbering on can lead me to not want to get involved.
“I try to keep it real simple, and I guess the main kōrero I wanted to get across to rangatahi is that council’s for everyone and council’s for us.”
Te Waaka said that to get rangatahi more involved in local politics, council needed to go to them, not the other way around.
“Just going to where rangatahi already are, being at the marae, being at the sporting events, being in spaces that rangatahi see as important, that’s the most important thing. Then, second, more rangatahi in council - I think the more we start to see ourselves as leaders, the more we’re naturally going to become engaged.”
A perfect example of that were the likes of Tamatha Paul and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke in Parliament, she said.
“I’m new to all of this, so it’s all going to be a challenge. New spaces are always challenging, especially unfamiliar spaces.
“This is completely out of my comfort zone, although I love politics.”
Just being in a space that Te Waaka said wasn’t built for her would be a challenge over the next three years, but she was confident in her whānau support.
Te Waaka’s victory coincided with Tararua voting to remove its Māori ward, meaning she would only serve a single term in that seat and would have to stand in a general ward, if she intended to seek re-election.
“I love my community and to think that that many people in the space that I’ve grown up in, the space that I love, don’t see the value in the seat is very mamae.
“However, I still don’t believe that the seat is true Treaty partnership anyway. I think that it was a step towards Aotearoa hou [a more modern New Zealand]and I think that my community voted for me, because they wanted me to see beyond the seat.”
Te Waaka said the mahi wouldn’t stop, and she intended to prepare rangatahi and the community at large for next year’s general election, and the 2028 local elections beyond that.
“The next mahi is knuckling down for three years for our next plan, what’s next for our community, because I refuse to leave that space empty. That’s just not going to happen while I’m there.”