Mayor Andrew Tripe says using karakia and waiata is the council’s way of acknowledging all of the community. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui District Council is routinely opening and closing hui with karakia and waiata – even though there are no Māori councillors.
The range of karakia includes a new composition penned by the mayor.
The council of 12 councillors and the mayor does not have Māori wards and no Māori candidates were elected to a general council seat in October’s local government elections.
Mayor Andrew Tripe said using karakia and waiata was the council’s way of acknowledging all of the community.
“We don’t have any iwi around the table, so we’re just going it alone. We book-end council meetings with a karakia,” Tripe said.
The mayor is learning te reo and has started opening full council meetings with a karakia he composed in te reo.
“I wrote it first in te reo. I gave it a bash. I went to and fro from Māori to English and tried my best, then I worked with someone to finish it and we translated it into English.
“I’m still happy to refine it, work through it and change it if necessary.”
Tripe said the karakia was a broad acknowledgement that recognises “who we are and our uniqueness as a district”. It is delivered in te reo first, then in English.
“I’m acknowledging a number of things – firstly our community, Māori and non-Māori. I’m acknowledging our district as a whole, urban and rural. I’m acknowledging the people in the room, that we’re here to have discussion and debate, and that it [aims to] be fruitful but robust, and so on.”
Tripe won the mayoralty in the October election. It is his first stint in local government.
“I’m growing and I’m learning, and for me it’s important to represent Te Ao Māori perspective. I’m here for all of our community and it’s important to acknowledge all our community – Māori, and the history we have and who we are as a nation. It’s important to acknowledge that as well.”
Tripe said he hadn’t yet developed a karakia whakamutunga (closing karakia). He currently uses an “inherited” karakia to close off full council meetings but intends to standardise how council and committee meetings are closed.
The council’s main committees also open and often close with karakia. Strategy and policy committee chair Kate Joblin recited the mayor’s karakia and a closing karakia at the committee’s recent meeting and also suggested a waiata. The chamber rose to sing the Whanganui River waiata E Rere [Te Awa Tupua], although not all councillors sang.
At this month’s meeting of the aspirations and projects committee, chair Rob Vinsen invited councillor Charlotte Melser to deliver the karakia, and at the end of the hui Melser asked if she could close with a karakia.
Councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay recited the karakia to open August’s operations and performance committee, and at this week’s meeting of the council-controlled organisations committee, deputy chair Rob Vinsen asked councillor Ross Fallen to give the karakia.
Fallen said he was learning te reo but did not yet feel able to do the karakia justice or give it “the respect it deserves”. He said he would read the karakia in English until he had confidence to deliver it in te reo.
Māori wards are back on the council agenda as part of a representation review into the make-up of the council, and because a Parliamentary review of the Local Government Electoral Legislation Bill requires councils that do not have Māori wards to decide by November 23 whether to have “specific Māori representation”.
The mayor’s karakia is:
Me inoi tātou:
E te Atua
Tēnei au
Tēnei mātou
Āu mema kua pōti te hapori o Whanganui
Arahina i a mātou
Ki te whakatau ngā whakataunga pai
Mō te rohe, mō ngā tāngata katoa
Kia piki ai te ora o te hapori
Me ngā iwi katoa o Whanganui
Haumi ē hui ē, Taiki ē!
Amine
Let us pray:
Dear God
Here I am
Here we are
Your elected members of Whanganui
Guide us
To make good decisions
For the district, for all people
To uplift the community
And all peoples of Whanganui
Bring forth unity … it is done!
Amen
* Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
Hemi Rolleston won the byelection with 543 votes, filling the seat his nephew couldn't.