Strategic Priority 4 - Enable connection

Objective

Support the aspirations of hapū, marae and uri of Whanganui-nui-tonu and strengthen the connection between our people and our whenua.

Why this is a priority

Knowing who we are, where we’re from and our connections to our whenua creates and builds strong relationships.

Having access to the whenua and the resources it provides allows us to practise traditional activities. It gives us a sense of belonging and can enhance the way we work together to uplift and achieve our collective aspirations to deliver the greatest intergenerational impact we can.

Key highlights

We have exceeded our shareholder events target in the past year by completing five successful events: a cultural aspirations hui in October, a farm tour in November, our annual general meeting in December 2023, whānau engagement at Pākaitore in February 2024 and a shareholder hunt on four different farms in May 2024.

We also re-ignited our ‘Kei whea koe?’ campaign in January 2024, on the search again for shareholder whānau who have unclaimed dividends. We ended the financial year having paid out $198,774 in unclaimed dividends.

Shareholder events

We’ve had a busy year with our shareholder and uri engagement events and connections, setting and exceeding our target of four events.

In October 2023 we held a cultural aspirations hui at Te Ao Hou Marae, Whanganui, connecting with shareholders to talk about cultural events and activities they’d like to see.

In November 2023, about 100 of our shareholder whānau travelled from Raetihi and Whanganui to tour Te Pā Station and Te Oreore Slip. Our thanks to Tuhiariki Marae for hosting us.

We’re regular attendees at Pākaitore Day and had great interaction and engagement with shareholders and whānau in February 2024, providing an opportunity to kōrero about grants and scholarships, unclaimed dividends and sales of our 50th anniversary celebration books.

A successful shareholder hunt was held at Te Paenga, Waipuna, Ohorea and Te Pā farms in May 2024.

‘Kei whea koe?’

With $3.19 million in unclaimed dividends at the end of our last financial year, we decided to reignite our ‘Kei whea koe’ campaign in January 2024.

Our12-month target is to pay $300,000 in unclaimed dividends. So far, we’ve met 68.5 percent of this target by paying $198,774. Along the way, we’ve found 179

shareholders and 12 whānau trusts on our unclaimed dividends list.

There has been a great response to our Facebook campaign, where we regularly post names of whānau and trusts with unclaimed dividends.

Ātihau's shareholder engagement liaison Atiria Menehira-McLeod has also been doing online research on search engine Google and family history and heritage websites, as well as visiting the Māori Land Court to research court orders to try to find connections.

We publish a list of whānau with unclaimed dividends on our website www.atihau.com and encourage people to take a look to see if they or whānau members are listed there. We’re always happy to help and whānau can call or email the office.