The burden of meeting those immediate needs falls on community and hapū with support from the iwi body while Tūhoe as an iwi needs its eye fixed on the future, she says.

“So we spend quite a bit of time imagining what all of the potential scenarios that could look like and thinking about the disciplines and the values that people need to be living by, in order to survive that.”

That’s not straight-forward, she says,

“It continues to take a bit of a leap to do that. That point was helpful because we could have spent a decade continuing to look for something that we were never going to find. Rather, we have spent the last 10 years giving things a go.

“The short summary of all of that is we have not been able to find any real substance or relevance.

“By that, I mean, Wellington is too different to the Tūhoe communities, I would say to this particular living system, ecosystem, lifestyle.”

It means Tūhoe and government speak past each other. “I'm confident that we have held up our end of the bargain in all attempts. I'm not saying that Wellington has been unkind or disingenuous.

“Both of us have underestimated each other's difference. Only one of us cares about that.

“I guess that many have expected Tūhoe people and the Crown to forge a pathway seemingly unencumbered by prior relationships or prior baggage or prior hangups.”

Luke draws a breath and lets it out with more than a hint of exasperation. She is “struggling to find diplomatic words”. “Wellington means well but is superficial in its dealings.

“Structurally the Crown's three-year timeframe is as a real inhibitor. A three-year timeframe for us is a fad.

“There is nothing substantive or meaningful that is helpful to us to achieve the real transformation or the real-life change in standards and optimism and contribution and responsibility. Nothing.”

What does “recovery from colonisation” look like, she asks. You won’t find many answers in books because they are, largely, yet to be written “mainly because we're all still in it”.

“The idea that economic development, which is where all iwi were pushed to in a post-settlement environment, that that was the blazing hallelujah thing, that somehow money in the bank would speed up an urge on recovery, well, that hasn't been proven.”

If you want an impression of the damage done, Luke talks of being “surprised” and admiring of “the drive behind Pākehā New Zealand’s interest in colonisation”.

“I often see more of a genuine intent to understand the depth of it more so amongst Pākehā New Zealand than amongst Māori.

“What I think that is about is that academics have suffocated the life and emotion out of colonisation. By doing that, they've removed it away from me, the normal whānau sitting around the kitchen table, and they've taken the debate and moved it to another place.”

It leaves Māori immersed in the constancy of the impact of colonisation while those without that boot on their head have the freedom to sit back and objectively consider it.

“That is obstructing our ability to put it on the table, cut it up with your knife and fork, eat it up and shift it.”

Tūhoe’s keen awareness of its own identity is not isolating. “I am a part of New Zealand and I am a part of this planet and of this globe and my ability to be responsible and generous and caring - intuitively, instinctively - makes me connected to the rest of this country.

That sense of self is critical, and is a powerful part of the educational ambitions of Tūhoe. “The Tūhoe purpose for learning and education relates to cultural permanency. Cultural permanency is underpinned by humans that can get to a place of comfort and security.”

“We differ with the New Zealand government's view on the value of education. We've been told on more than one occasion that the purpose of education is to ensure that all members of society can fulfill the economic function and a thriving economy is the way in which New Zealand prospers.

“The Tūhoe learning and educated experience must be connected to life in Te Urewera. Without it, there is no purpose to learning.”

There’s a thread to follow there which ultimately will always lead back to being Tūhoe, and finding security in that identity and holding it at the core of your being.

Can Tūhoe manage those big-ticket education, health and welfare services? “We are,” she says. “There is no government footprint here.”

Government is a “cheque book and a lawmaker”, says Luke. “They don’t do ‘care’. We are dealing with, currently, a backlog of welfare-health issues. The answer to [those issues] is to return leadership responsibility and influence, not peddle more drugs and more social workers.

“For us, we don't understand that strategy. You are using a strategy that has never been proven to work. You can't find enough social workers and you can't fund enough of them, but that's what you're peddling.”

Covid-19 has sharpened the contrast between worlds. Tūhoe, like everyone, has suffered the impact.

“I think we have been slightly gleeful at the exposure of globalisation and the erosion of the value of local relationships and the ability of local communities to care for themselves. We could suddenly have a reliable examination of the way that we are living our lives.

“And we could see all of the holes, all of the contradictions, as tangata whenua, as people with some kind of superior knowledge of the land but who were hitting the supermarkets just as much as anybody else.”

And now it’s time to vote, Luke’s reflection over the past three years shows again that challenge - that refusal to compromise.

“I think that to serve your community and serve your society is something precious.” She will look at the ballot and ask: “Are they arrogant?”

“That's how I choose. Arrogant politicians are shortsighted and narrow and can't listen - and especially can't listen to people who live in places of which only 10 per cent of our communities [have] tar seal.

She bridles against MMP and the deals it forces, and the compromises made. When votes are sought, Luke sees it as an invitation to be “tactical”.

“I don't like tactics. I want to size up a party and feel strongly that they believe in what they stand for. I don't believe anybody should compromise on their values. They should just stick at it longer, be smart about it and fight.

“If you are to compromise on your values, you should get out of the partnership. There is nothing coherent or long-lasting that can be achieved when a compromise of values is at hand.”