Returning to advise and serve

HISTORIC: Hoani Paku has been appointed as the first full-time Maori liaison officer at Masterton District Council. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Career Maori health and social worker Hoani Paku has started as the first full-time Maori liaison advisor - kaitakawaenga - for Masterton District Council.

Mr Paku - Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Rangitane o Wairarapa, and Ngati Raukawa ki te Tonga - returned to his hometown of Masterton about two years ago after completing a career as a health and social worker that took him from Wairarapa to Horowhenua and Auckland.

Mr Paku also shares a British lineage reaching back to Bristol in south west England.

He had worked almost two decades in the health sector in Auckland, he said, from where in 2013 he had returned to Masterton.

Mr Paku had in the past also worked for Child, Youth and Family and was also the Youth Justice co-ordinator for Wairarapa.

"It was always my hope to one day eventually return home to be closer to my immediate whanau. I realised a return as such would also enable me to strengthen with my hapu and iwi whakapapa links."

Mr Paku started work, after returning to the town, as a whanau ora navigator with Whaiora health services in Masterton and was rapt to win his appointment this month as the first full-time Maori liaison advisor with the Masterton District Council.

"I am passionate about working effectively alongside like-minded people to improve the health, well-being and socially acceptable lifestyles for all people who choose in live in the Wairarapa.

Mr Paku said underpinning his work as Maori liaison advisor were "concepts of partnership, protection and participation in conjunction with the Treaty of Waitangi (and) linked with common core values, cultural beliefs and customary practices".

"When I came home I really had no idea I would take up a role like this. I returned to strengthen my whakapapa links and I am very grateful to Whaiora for giving me the chance to spread my wings, so to speak, and connect back in to the entire community.

"So when this position came up I thought 'wow, what an opportunity' and to be appointed is a real honour and very humbling.

"I'm very mindful my work is about enhancing the mana of the council and also being that person who will liaise with Maori, whether that be iwi, hapu, marae or whanau," he said.

"I commend the mayor, councillors and council officers for taking this historic step forward and appointing a full-time Maori liaison advisor for the very first time."

Mike Kawana, cultural adviser for Rangitane o Wairarapa, holds the role as kaumatua for Masterton District Council and Nerissa Aramakutu works as the council policy advisor Maori and general.

"It is a real pleasure to be working alongside Mike as kaumatua, he has a wealth of knowledge, and Nerissa as policy advisor," Mr Paku said.

"It's about making sure we work as a team, not as individuals, although there is a clear focus in my role on enhancing the partnership, protection and participation of Maori with council, ensuring Maori are involved and brought in to the decision-making process."