"I'm standing for many things."
She said the gathering would need follow-through to find solutions and "not be moaners".
"It's about all of us coming together," she said.
"So we do need the doctors, we do need the lawyers, we do need the business people, the farmers, but what can we do to actually grow Tairawhiti?
"That's what this is about."
Heni Tuhura said she attended the picnic "to stand on behalf of my mokopuna and those yet to be born into this world".
"This mokopuna here is wearing the shirt of Nga Tama Toa which were our soldiers that went to war."
Barbara Calendar said she attended because she had "real concerns about what's happening in our country."
"The Three Waters - what's happening there - it's like they want all this feedback.
"But at the end of the day the government is gonna do what they want to do, regardless of what the people want, and I have real concerns about that."
The Freedoms and Rights Coalition also organised a gathering at the Auckland War Memorial Museum today protesting Covid level 3 lockdown measures.
