Ngati Rangi chairman Kemp Dryden has been working with others for a better tribal future. Photo/Bevan Conley
Ruapehu iwi Ngati Rangi is making significant progress with a plan to transform its community and is lucky to have leaders to progress it, chairman Kemp Dryden says.
The Ruapehu Whanau Transformation Project was launched in July. It's an ambitious plan that tackles jobs, health, education, housing and social issues.
The five were interlinked, Mr Dryden said, and jobs were possibly the highest priority.
"Half the problems are gone if people have a job."
Jobs depended on education, and higher educational outcomes were a goal.
Getting more and better rental housing was also near the top of the list, with more accessible health services.
The aim is to stem the flow of people moving to Australia and change the Waimarino's high deprivation statistics, which are especially severe for Maori people.
"We've made significant progress this year. We have a dedicated team working on it, led by the tribe's pou arahi, Che Wilson. It takes a lot of skill, energy and passion to transform communities to work together. We've got organisations working with each other and working to each others' strengths," Mr Dryden said.
He's been one of the Ngati Rangi Trust's seven trustees since 2007, and its chairman for nearly three years. Its previous chairman was Mr Wilson, and before that Debbie Te Riaki was the tribe's project manager.
The three of them had fulltime jobs between 2007 and 2009, but spent much of their free time planning for the tribe's future. They made the best plans they could, then thought about who would partner with them to make them a reality.
The iwi now has the equivalent of 6.5 fulltime people working from its office at 1 Mountain Rd in Ohakune, next door to the Conservation Department.
It has a kura kaupapa Maori (Maori language immersion school) and a health clinic. Its environmental wing, Te Taiao, is managed by Hannah Rainforth. It has a ski academy, shared with neighbouring iwi Ngati Uenuku, and plans national iwi snow championships next year.
"We have to be thankful for what we have been taught and the opportunities that we've taken to grow ourselves on behalf of our people," Mr Dryden said.
Ngati Rangi is a distinct iwi within the Whanganui confederation. He estimated it had 8000 members, but said they were spread far and wide.
About 15 per cent live in Raetihi, Ohakune and Waiouru and their surroundings, with 50 per cent in Wanganui and the rest further away, many overseas.
The Ngati Rangi rohe takes in the southern foothills of Mount Ruapehu. The tribe's land claims fall across the Whanganui, National Park and Taihape districts.
Ngati Rangi has been through a mandating process, in preparation for claim settlement. Mr Dryden said 400 registered members voted - a comparatively high turnout - and 99.5 per cent gave the Ngati Rangi Trust the tick. The tribe was now waiting for the Office of Treaty Settlements to confirm that mandate.
Other parts of the confederation have yet to get that far.
"We are supporting and assisting our whanaunga of the Whanganui confederation to achieve mandate as well. We want to do this collectively."
Progress on the Whanganui River claim has given the iwi confidence to move toward land settlement. But that process can be divisive.
"The settlement process is a foreign process for us. It's not defined on our terms. But we've decided that we're going to engage in that process.
"The main thing for us is that after that's over we're still able to be whanaunga, because family is family," Mr Dryden said.
The iwi's first priority after the diesel spill on Mount Ruapehu in late September was to ensure its communities got through the crisis. Now that was over, it wanted to know who was responsible and make sure it never happened again.
Mr Dryden has a lot on his plate.
Since October last year he's been the pou tai rangahau for the Conservation Department's Whanganui and Taranaki districts, following in the footsteps of Rangipo Metekingi and Charles Mareikura, though with a slightly different job.
"What I do with the department is actually try and bring the iwi and the department closer together, because the reality is a lot of the lands administered by DoC are within the various tribal areas."
He's also been the chairman of the Whanganui Maori Regional Tourism Organisation since 2009, making it his job to oversee the Puanga (Maori New Year) celebrations from Mount Ruapehu to the sea.
He was born in Taihape and raised for the first five years of his life by his grandparents, Peehi and Hinga Waretini. They lived at Raketapauma Marae at Irirangi, south of Waiouru.
He's also affiliated to Ngati Rongomaiwahine, through his grandmother.
After those early years he lived with his parents in Wellington, then Rotorua, and eventually worked as a bank teller in Hamilton.
By the age of 26 Mr Dryden was the manager of Frankton's Trustbank (later Westpac), the third-biggest Westpac bank in the Waikato. He was responsible for 18 staff.
He later worked in commercial banking and commercial and property finance, in corporate sales, and then as a business planning and mentoring consultant.
His wife, Nicole, a top netball player with Tainui and Tauranga Moana affiliations, coached the Waikato premier team to national victory for three years. The two returned from their high-flying careers in Hamilton to live in Wanganui six years ago. They have three boys, now aged 19, 15 and 14.
Mr Dryden said his working life might sound very corporate, but he was also privileged to grow up on a marae, among cousins and relations, and had always been a key face there.
"I came home to be closer to my maunga, awa and marae. It's always a tribal responsibility to return home. We know that we must come home one day."