Iwi leader Mane Tahere is positively optimistic about where his iwi of Ngāpuhi are heading in today’s time.
At 36, he’s the youngest leader in the Iwi Chairs Forum and represents the largest iwi in the country.
Being the chairman of Te Rūnanga a Iwi o Ngāpuhi is no easy job. It’s either a calling or a curse.
You don’t have to go too far back to find not-so-positive headlines of previous leaders. But while Ngāpuhi always remembers its past, Tahere wants to move the iwi forward.
Ngāpuhi has an estimated 200,000 members, consisting of 110 hapū (or subtribes) across 150-plus marae.
Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi-Ō-Ngāpuhi office is in Kaikohe, where Tahere is based.
To take on the top job, he had to serve one year as a trustee for his local Takiwa. Tahere has been an active member of his own marae board for nearly a decade and served on various boards around the region.
Growing up, Tahere spent time with his father’s whānau in Northland and also his mother’s whānau from the Hauraki area.
“A lot of Ngāpuhi are transient and for us we spent a lot of time with my father’s side here in Northland, initially being brought up in places like Ohaeawai, Kaikohe and Te Iringa but also my mum’s side in the Hauraki-Coromandel, mainly Paeroa,” Tahere said.
And like many Māori, through whānau, he has close whakapapa to a range of iwi including Ngāpuhi, Ngati Tautahi, Ngai Tawake, Ngati Hine, Hauraki, Ngati Tamaterā and Ngāti Hako.
He knows all the stories and the intimate hurt his grandparents suffered at the hands of the Crown, through the loss of land and loss of language.
“To see first-hand the hurt my grandparents carried affects me deeply and fosters the respect I have for our elders and what they went through - tuku iho kōrero [hand down information],” Tahere said.
“I come from a strong Ngāpuhi Tahere whānau where it has been one of battle against the system over many decades, and intergenerational. When you see your grandparents’ generation being marginalised or come back from being locked up, you see the taimaha [heaviness] on them, which was transferred from my grandfather to my father to us children.
“As Ngāpuhi chair, my role is to contextualise that into a modern-day battle.”
Tahere said in the old days it was pretty simple.
“They would just take up arms, as for today, although never too far-reaching that type of action, we are more educated and strategic in solutions focused.”
Tahere said before Ngāpuhi can even think of settlement or reparation, “I have to make sure the wellbeing of Ngāpuhi people is at the front of what I do.”
His wife Anya is his tuara (backbone) and rock.
“We went to school together and eventually married and with Tamaiti, they are both my motivation and retreat,” Tahere said.
“It is always a privilege when I come home to a smiling welcoming whānau after a challenging week in hapū iwi politics.”
Tahere was fortunate to have worked for the post-settlement tribes in Nelson and studied indigenous leadership at Canterbury University.
“I worked for Ngati Tama ki te Waipounamu Trust and managed to learn valuable lessons in a post-settlement environment,” he said.
“Ngāpuhi are not there at the moment, but I was able to observe how they worked hard to grow their commercial assets and cultural identity leading towards service to their whānau, marae and hapū.
“They are great people down there manaaki tangata.”
Tahere said though he’s only been in the chair seven months, the challenges today are no different to what Ngāpuhi faced a decade or two decades ago.
“Different hapū in Ngāpuhi are at different stages; there are still the long-term effects of colonisation around,” he said.
“The arguments of settlement are there but we do need to focus on lifting our wellbeing as Ngāpuhi.
“Some of our people aren’t worried about settlements and there are some who are. However, what I see on the ground is that many are just wondering what they are going to put on the table each night and how to survive day by day.
“Only by focusing on our wellbeing, and once our people are not having to defend for themselves, then perhaps that’s the day they can turn up to the marae and genuinely contribute to a settlement kōrero.
“Others will argue that case in point and why we need to get on with settlement. That is what I get a sense of from the Crown, but I’m more focused on our people’s wellbeing.
“It’s not up to me. It’s up to our hapū and what this Government should be doing is listening to our hapū and how they want.”
Had Ngāpuhi taken settlement, like Tainui and Ngāi Tahu in 1995, they could also be sitting on billion-dollar bank balances.
“I for one have a lot of hurt from what my grandparents suffered so I think it’s a reconciliation of heart and mind first before money settlement.”
Tahere said he doesn’t look at their whanaunga from Tamaki, Waikato or the South Island with envy.
“I know many Ngāpuhi will look through that lens, however.
“Mihi atu kia ratou [acknowledge and respect them] because they have followed the path for them and their kaumatua and kuia.
“But in true whanaungatanga fashion, I know they are there to awhi when asked as they continue to reach out in support to Ngāpuhi.”
He said that there is a perception in places like Wellington that Ngāpuhi were their own worst enemies and couldn’t agree on anything.
“That is a Pākehā whakaaro. If they haven’t gotten the drift of who Ngāpuhi are by now then they will never get it anyway. That’s up to us.
“That’s an old rhetoric that continues to be deployed by governments for their own agendas.
“They use that all the time as Crown officials, senior servants return to that rhetoric. But I know when we have a disagreement and have it out on the marae, it’s raw, it’s thorough and it’s real.”
It’s real alright.
Just a fortnight ago, Ngāpuhi, led by Tahere, walked out of an Iwi Chairs Forum session with the Government.
“Our people are hurting and I don’t think they really know what’s coming if our people are not put at ease,” Tahere said.
“Ngāpuhi is a sleeping giant being awoken in this time of adversity. We are in many ways the last bastion for kaupapa like constitutional change, the kaitiaki of he whakaputunga me te Tiriti.
“At the end of the day, I don’t see myself in this role for a long time. We need to keep driving succession. Five-year cycles is what I try to work to, enough time to make some change, enough time not to get complacent and if you haven’t made change in five years then get out the way, you’re a barrier!
“One thing I am certain about and apply for my people is like my old principle Arihia Stirling, or ‘Ma Emery’, who used to say: The harder you work, the easier it is to work harder.”
Joseph Los’e is an award winning journalist and joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa Māori Editor. Los’e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and prior to joining NZME worked for urban Māori organisation Whānau Waipareira.