Recognising the strength and resilience of community - Hūhana Lyndon

Hundreds of people turned out to the hīkoi along Kaikohe’s main street. Photo / Jenny Ling

It’s been galling to watch on as the death of 3-year-old mokopuna Catalya Remana Tangimetua Pepene, when her body is hardly cold, is being used as a political patu against the people of Ngāpuhi.

It’s not something that should be used for media clickbait.

He Taonga Te Mokopuna.

I acknowledge the chair of Te Rūnanga ā Iwi o Ngāpuhi, Mane Tahere, for his immediate call for the people to meet in response to Catalya’s death as investigations proceed to find those responsible for this heinous act.

Despite what some leading politicians claim, there is not silence. There is action.

Te Iwi o Ngāpuhi is acutely aware of the challenges it faces in heartland kāinga like Kaikohe and elsewhere in the district.

These issues are not new for our community, hapū or whānau.

Kaikohe did not become bogged down with social problems overnight.

Rather, it’s a long tale of Crown neglect. You cannot ignore the dire lack of investment in our region over many years, which has left communities like Kaikohe starved of jobs, better housing, improved education opportunities as well as health and social services.

There’s serious risk in the Government’s ‘tough on crime’ approach, as if such an approach will ‘fix’ the scourge of meth use in our community.

Look at what happened in Ōpōtiki: the heavy-handed raids, strip searches and parachuting police in from outside the region was traumatic for local communities and left local Iwi Liaison police officers with damaged relationships to repair.

Indeed, as Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi we are in repair mode, and a solely blunt, punitive approach is not going to fix our problems.

To genuinely address the drivers of crime and poverty, we need to examine the social, cultural, economic and environmental determinants of health and wellbeing.

Those problems will only deepen until we take a holistic approach to addressing persistent inequities across the region’s population by investing in infrastructure, basic services and sustainable industries, while facilitating the return of land to those who it’s been stolen from.

We have to remain hopeful, and indeed our people give me hope.

As a daughter of the North, I loathe seeing our iwi being used as a political whipping boy and lament the death of our mokopuna Catalya.

But Ngāpuhi are a can-do people, we want to be self-reliant and deliver services to our people, according to our own tikanga.

In heartland Ngāpuhi our people are not silent on these issues.

We are trying our best to be parents, friends, cooks in the whare kai, serving on School Boards of Trustees, as sports coaches, lifting a tea towel to help.

This is the Ngāpuhi I see every day in the community and on our marae.

My inoi is for a political commitment to work together as hapū, iwi, civic leaders and with those of us in Parliament – to protect our whanaungatanga and come together seeking solutions for the betterment of our people and communities.

This requires commitment and trust.

Māori have always come across the arawhiti to patiently work with the Government. The big question remains, is the Government willing to meet with Māori and work together as Te Tiriti o Waitangi promised?