Coming home is not the end of the journey for Dion Tuuta

He began his career as a historian for the Waitangi Tribunal, led Treaty Settlement negotiations for Ngāti Mutunga, and was a general manager and chief executive for Parininihi Ki Waitōtara for eight years, leaving to become CEO of Te Ohu Kaimoana. Now he’s back home - and it’s for good. Whenua talks to the new chair of PKW’s Committee of Management, Dion Tuuta.

They say you can take the boy away from Taranaki - but you can’t take Taranaki away from the boy. And so it is with Dion Tuuta, the new chair of the Parininihi Ki Waitōtara Incorporation (PKW).

He affiliates to nearly all of the Taranaki tribes, but was raised mostly among his people, Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama, in the tiny northern Taranaki coastal settlement at Urenui.

But his dad, an engineer in the power schemes, moved his young whānau north – and so began the pull that has kept Dion Tuuta true to the insistent call of his Taranaki heart.

Dion returned to Urenui at 11, went to high school at Francis Douglas Memorial College, left at 18 to go to university to gain an undergraduate degree in education and a Master of Arts in history, before taking a job as a historian and research officer with the Waitangi Tribunal.

A position at the Crown Forestry Rental Trust followed, and then Dion took on Treaty Settlement negotiations for Ngāti Mutunga with his cousin Jamie, together spearheading a settlement in 2006. He managed Te Puni Kōkiri’s Treaty settlement unit for a time before becoming transition manager for Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Mutunga following the settlement of the Ngāti Mutunga Treaty claims.

In 2008, he began working for Parininihi ki Waitōtara as general manager finance and administration, spending eight years with the incorporation and eventually becoming its chief executive.

In 2016, the opportunity to become chief executive of national Māori Fisheries Trust Te Ohu Kaimoana drew him away from home again, but three years ago Dion was elected to PKW’s governance board, the Committee of Management. He was re-elected in November 2020, and in December he moved back to Taranaki - this time, he says, for good.

After five years away, he says, ‘It is fantastic to be home’.

Above image (left - right): PKW CoM members Will Edwards, David MacLeod, Bev Gibson, outgoing chair Hinerangi Raumati-Tu’ua, Dion Tuuta and Taaringaroa Nicholas.

“When I came back in 2007, I had no intention of leaving again but the opportunity to work at a national level at Te Ohu Kaimoana was something I had to take up. I always intended to come home, so I was pleased when the chance arose to work for the whānau again.

“I really loved working at Te Ohu Kaimoana but I missed Taranaki. It’s where I want to live for the rest of my life.”

Dion moved back to New Plymouth with his wife Rose Waetford, of Ngāti Wai (north of Whangārei) - their three grown children having flown the nest - to take up the position of Pou Whakahaere / Chief Executive) of Te Kotahitanga o Te Ātiawa.

At 49, with his mother and sister in Australia, he says he is now ‘my family’s ahi kā back home’.

Above image: Dion is welcomed to Te Kotahitanga ōTe Ātiawa as the new CEO.

Above image: Dion and his wife Rose

Dion’s seat as chair of PKW was a planned transition by the Board to fill the vacancy left by longstanding chair Hinerangi Raumati-Tu’ua and timed to follow the half-yearly meeting of shareholders.

He feels a deep connection to PKW.

“Nearly a quarter of my life has been affiliated with Parininihi ki Waitōtara in some form, the longest I’ve been involved in anything outside of whānau,“ he explains.

“Parininihi ki Waitōtara is an important part of our history as Taranaki Māori and can play an important part of our future. I view PKW as being one of the kaitiaki of the last remaining whenua confiscated from our tūpuna in 1865. That role is critically important.”

“It is important to use that taonga to generate wellbeing for our PKW whānau. PKW’s collective nature gives it significant opportunity. It is one of only a very few pan-iwi entities we have in Taranaki, and it is greater than the sum of its parts.”

“Our collective nature makes us one of the largest Māori agribusinesses in the country, with the potential to be so much more.”

Major economic, environmental and social challenges lie ahead for Taranaki iwi and PKW, Dion says, but the Board has a clear line of sight to build on the strategies that have been put in place.

“It harks back to the vision that the people had when they established Parininihi ki Waitōtara: to build up the legacy over time so that it can be something of value to its descendants, something its people can be proud of, providing meaningful benefits to its owners while not losing its cultural value,” he says.

“The Board must achieve all of this without losing touch with the reality we are facing. Climate is, without a doubt, the significant challenge immediately ahead of us, but there are others, too - for example, how we are organised. We have more than 10,000 owners, some of whom are connected to Parininihi ki Waitōtara, and some who don’t know they are shareholders.”

As incoming chair, he says he has inherited an incredibly strong foundation put in place by the likes of former chairs Spencer Carr, Jamie Tuuta and Hinerangi Raumati-Tu’ua.

“I’m really conscious of that. I mean, you’re standing in the shadow of giants. I’m conscious of the work that they did and of the need to build on that and add to the legacy,” he acknowledges.

“Our key focus is protecting our ancestral land base while continuing to diversify to deal with the challenges that the future is going to bring.”