Te Hiku Social and Wellbeing Accord marks 10th anniversary at special Waitangi celebration

Te Hiku Accord Trust members, iwi leaders, dignitaries and Crown partners celebrate 10 years of hard work of uplifting Te Hiku hapū, iwi and whānau.

It’s taken 10 years to finesse, but one iwi-Crown partnership is now being hailed as a potential model for the rest of the motu (country).

The Te Hiku o Te Ika Iwi-Crown Social Development and Wellbeing Accord was signed in 2013 with four Te Hiku iwi (Te Aupōuri, Ngāi Takoto, Te Rarawa and later Ngāti Kuri) as part of the Te Hiku iwi Treaty settlement process.

The aim of the accord was to improve the social development and wellbeing outcomes of Te Hiku whānau, hapū and iwi by increasing the efficiency and efficacy of government services in the Far North.

As part of the Waitangi weekend celebrations, a special 10th-anniversary ngahuru event was held to mark the important milestone and to acknowledge the mahi (work) of all accord partners.

After an opening karakia (prayer), iwi leaders Haami Piripi (Te Rarawa), Wallace Rivers (Ngaitakoto), Peter Lucas-Jones (Te Aupōuri) and Hugh Karena (Te Aupōuri) addressed the crowd, each sharing their hopes and aspirations for the accord.

Lucas-Jones said he was proud of how far the partnership had come, saying, “Look what we have achieved in 10 years and imagine where we’ll be in 25.”

Newly appointed Te Rarawa chairwoman Katie Murray opened the whaikōrero, before introducing Deputy PM Carmel Sepuloni and other Crown speakers to address the audience.

Sepuloni said the past decade had required a multi-agency approach to Crown-Māori relations and the Te Hiku accord was a model that could be used between other iwi and government agencies nationwide.

“I’m really proud of the collective effort of Te Hiku, the government agencies, the trust itself and for the progress we have made over the last five years,” Sepuloni said.

“It was a slow start but better late than never, and we’ve certainly been able to gather momentum over the time we’ve been able to come together.

“When I came up and saw the progress I was overwhelmed, especially after visiting a whānau who had recently had a water tank installed, and seeing the difference that made to that whānau.”

Another success story for the accord is Whiria Te Muka (weaving the strands) — a New Zealand Police-Te Hiku iwi partnership launched in 2017, focused on preventing and reducing family harm.

A recent Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis on the programme concluded that for every $1 invested in Whiria Te Muka, there was a $4.07 return.

The findings also affirmed every incident of reported whānau harm in Te Hiku had cost stakeholders $61,627.

Former Kaitaia police officer in charge Geoff Ryan helped set up the partnership but said he had come at the partnership from a very different lens.

He said his experience working with an iwi-led approach had changed his mindset entirely around the benefit of “by Māori, for Māori”.

“At the time, police were focused on policies and procedures around reducing family harm whereas iwi were focused on a thriving whānau,” Ryan said.

“Some of the big lessons I learned was to let go of power and control and to just trust the process.

“After being in the force for a long time and seeing the cyclic nature of whānau harm, I saw how the iwi approach changed people’s lives and am convinced this is how it should be done.”

Education and skills development is another core component of the accord, with the Education Ministry a key element of the partnership.

Chief executive and secretary for education Iona Holsted has worked with the accord for more than six years and admitted she, too, was initially unsure about how it would work.

“When I first met Carol [Berghan] and she talked about the systems approach and the paraphernalia around it, I was actually quite sceptical as I didn’t see how it was going to work,” Holsted said.

“I just had to trust what they were doing and to get over the fact it wasn’t necessarily how I would do things.

“As we worked through the plans and saw them in practice and the results, I realised actually this really works.

“Of course sometimes things didn’t work, but nobody blames anyone, and the accord is still something I prioritise.”

Te Hiku Iwi Development Trust chairwoman Rhonda Kite ONZM and chief executive Carol Berghan each expressed how the road getting to today had been an uphill battle, but the outcomes now spoke for themselves.

“The thing I’m most proud of from the last decade is the perseverance because it’s not easy to work together and we didn’t start with a roadmap,” Berghan said.

“We had to find a way that we’ve never done before and we now have something quite unique.

“It’s not about the iwi, it’s about the iwi using their leverage through the settlement to get what we all want for our whānau — Pākeha, Māori, Asian, whoever, everyone benefits.”

“It’s absolutely a model that could be used, but we need to be able to engage with agencies at a level that’s not necessarily engaged in at Wellington,” Kite said.

“We have experts here on the ground who can help us navigate that but again, it takes time.”

Building trust had been an integral part of getting to where the accord was, added Berghan.

She said with an election looming, she hoped any future government would continue to see the benefits of their work.

“We’re lucky this government has been in for three rounds so it’s given us that time to build relationships, to build trust,” she said,

“My concern is that with a new government, they’ll have their own agendas and so where does that leave us?”

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins made a special appearance at the 10-year celebration along with ministers Kiritapu Allen, Willow-Jean Prime, Kelvin Davis, Peeni Henare and Andrew Little.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins made a special appearance at the Te Hiku ō Te Ika Iwi Crown Social Development and Wellbeing Accord 10-year celebration at Waitangi last Friday.

Hipkins said he was encouraged by the discussions he’d heard about the accord and assured it was something his government would continue to support.

“Waitangi is all about touching base and to see how we’re going — where is our partnership strong and where does it need more work,” he said.

“I’m here tonight because I want to take every opportunity I can to listen and understand what is going on.”

“This accord should be enduring, so if I’m re-elected as Prime Minister, I will absolutely ensure it is something that would continue.”

A special art series of 12 whakaahua (picture panels) representing key messages of the accord was presented on the night.

Accord agencies include the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the Tertiary Education Commission, the Ministry of Justice, NZ Police, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Internal Affairs, Statistics New Zealand, Te Puni Kōkiri, the Ministry of Social Development, Oranga Tamariki and the Ministry of Health.