Local elections 2025: Papakāinga builder Kiritahi Firmin stands for Whanganui Māori Ward seat

“I’ve been groomed by our people to serve all my life," Whanganui Māori Ward candidate Kiritahi Firmin says. Photo / Tuakana Te Tana

Whanganui Māori Ward candidate Kiritahi Firmin says a calling to serve her people has shaped her work, leadership and her decision to stand once again for the Whanganui District Council.

The Kimiora Trust founder is one of five candidates vying for the district’s first two Māori Ward seats.

It is her third attempt at gaining a place around the council table, but the first time she has been able to stand in a Māori ward. She is also standing for the Rural Community Board.

“I’ve been groomed by our people to serve all my life and I’ve done that with gusto,” Firmin said.

“I’m an accessible voice and a strong voice to ask the right questions, engage and articulate our people’s voice in both reo.”

If elected, Firmin said she would focus on five key priorities:

• Growing us – investing in local opportunities;
• Protecting us – treasuring the awa and the environment;
• Activating us – making community spaces lively, accessible and safe;
• Building us – investing in infrastructure and housing;
• Celebrating us – honouring cultures, histories, herstories, arts and heritage.

She said it was a crucial time to ensure Māori voices were heard clearly in local government.

“We have to get it right for our mokopuna. Many of our people still have little engagement or understanding of all the things council does for Māori.

“We need to have champions to bring our people’s voices to the council table to carry the mana of our people and our Awa Tupua.

“We need to be transparent, well-informed and strong enough to speak up – even if it’s not easy kōrero to have.”

Firmin’s iwi affiliations span both sides of her whakapapa: Ngā Paerangi, Ngāti Tuera and Hinearo on her mother’s side, and Rātana Pā, Ngāti Maniapoto and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui on her father’s. She lives in the Makirikiri Valley, Upokongaro.

For the past 20 years, she has led Kimiora Trust, a business and consultancy which runs social services with a focus on native nursery production and eco-therapy.

She said she was also nearing the completion of a $5 million papakāinga development on whānau and trust-owned land.

Firmin is a member of the Institute of Directors, a graduate of the Agri-Women’s Development Trust Escalator programme and a Kellogg’s Agri-Business graduate. She describes herself as a botanist, eco-therapist and registered social worker.

The Whanganui River is central to how she views council work.

“Kāore e kore, ko Tupua te Kawa te mātāpuna o te ora. (There is no doubt that the natural law and value system of Te Awa Tupua is the source of wellbeing.)

“Pōti mai e te whānau, hei māngai mā tātou mō tō tātou mana motuhake.” (Vote for me to be a voice for all of us and for our self-determination.)

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.