In good hands

From past to present, Te Āti Hau Trust is in good hands and good health, says new chair Dr. Rāwiri Tinirau.

Other trustees on the new committee are Che Wilson and Dr Tiwha Puketapu (new appointments), Claire Cilliers (independent), Jonelle HirotiKinane (independent) and Tukariri Dryden (associate).

Rāwiri, who was also on the previous Trust committee, pays tribute to former Trust members Shar Amner, Mavis Mullins and Aaron Rice-Edwards (independent).

“We had a great previous Trust committee that was really committed to thinking about ways that we can support our shareholders and our uri and worked toward establishing systems that will be enduring,” Rāwiri says.

Two highlights of the prior committee’s tenure included contracting a project manager to help with Trust plans and moving to online applications for education grants and scholarships, in partnership with the Māori Education Trust.

“Yes, we have had some teething problems, but we had to give it a go,” Rāwiri says. “We live in a time now where information technology is key to helping us in the future.

“We are trying to improve our efficiency and effectiveness as a Trust, and we think investing in a streamlined online application process for our education grants and scholarships is a great start.”

However, Rāwiri says some grants are unlikely to be offered online, particularly kaumātua grants for health and wellbeing. “Our elderly prefer to provide a manual application, and that’s fine too,” he says.

In recent years, there has been an increase in people applying for kaumātua grants. “One of the moves by the previous Trust was to look at those applications on a monthly basis rather than a quarterly basis, which means we can process them a lot faster as the need arises,” Rāwiri says. Project management was contracted to M & M Ltd – Miriama Cribb and her brother Manahi. They were also asked to look at a process to provide regular grants to the 40plus marae within the rohe.

“We are unable to provide grants to all marae every year, but we’ve started by giving them all a oneoff grant and looking at a cyclable approach, where a marae will be able to receive a grant every three years from the Trust.”

The Trust also plans to continue its marae capital and infrastructure grants for big projects.

“That’s another area where the project manager has been able to lead out on.”

The project manager is also looking at Trust alumni – those people who have received grants, particularly education ones – and thinking of ways to maintain engagement with them beyond the life of their grant or scholarship.

The Trust held a productive strategy workshop in March, but outcomes from that are yet to be released. However, Rāwiri says the committee is looking at how the Trust is aligned to the whole Ātihau Group and what its contribution to the Group could be, while continuing the direction and work of the previous Trust.