Hastings District councillor Bayden Barber and Hawke's Bay Regional councillor Hinewai Ormsby are sharing their campaign secrets to encourage other Māori to run for local government. Photo / Supplied
Hastings District councillor Bayden Barber and Hawke's Bay Regional councillor Hinewai Ormsby are sharing their campaign secrets to encourage other Māori to run for local government. Photo / Supplied
Two Māori councillors in Hawke's Bay are sharing their campaign secrets in a series of workshops in a bid to see increased Māori representation in local body elections.
Hinewai Ormsby, a first-time Hawke's Bay regional councillor, and Bayden Barber, who is serving a second term as a Hastings district councillor,have partnered with political strategist Simon Lusk to run a series of wānanga aimed at getting more Māori to run.
It will focus on the strategies and experiences of Ormsby and Barber, neither of whom ever imagined running in local body elections.
Ormsby grew up with parents who encouraged her to give back, be that through community plantings or the Duke of Edinburgh scheme.
Her decision to run for council was based largely around her environmental activism as well as a desire to be the change she wanted to see.
"If no one like me is going to run, [I thought] I should do it.
"That Māori world view of kaitiakitanga and giving back I think resonated well with Māori and also non-Māori."
She said it was not enough for the Electoral Commission to run a campaign to encourage more diversity and hoped the workshops would fill the gap of the "how to mechanics of running a successful campaign".
"Sure you can have a goal and an aspiration, but if you don't have those pragmatic steps and goals to reach that bigger goal, [...] it's too big a stretch.
"We've walked this road and we've both run very successful campaigns.
"We want to share those tools to enable Māori to feel confident in running a campaign and to ultimately be successful."
Hinewai Ormsby responds to a celebratory haka in her honour as a new councillor in 2019. Photo / Paul Taylor
She hoped to grow a network of confident Māori candidates and said it would be "one more spoke in the wheel of Māori representation".
Ormsby said it tied closely to the question of what that representation looked like and Māori wards.
She said there were many different forms of representation and communities should have a say in what this looked like.
She felt she had a clear mandate and said there was a particular kind of mana in having been elected in a general seat to represent her community.
Barber agreed Māori wards weren't a "silver bullet" solution for increased Māori representation and this would help.
While Barber first "dipped his toes into the world of local body elections" after successfully standing for a rural board in 2013, making the next step was a bit daunting.
"For me it was the next step, but it was a big step."
A big part of his campaign success was attributed to having a "personal vision" and being able to clearly articulate that.
He said being Māori and standing in a general ward was challenging as your message had to resonate with everyone.
"The workshop we are going to be holding is how Māori can put their issues so that they resonate with the whole community."
Barber hoped people would leave feeling confident and inspired to campaign.
"It's all about winning - you don't just do it for the experience. We want people to feel confident that they can win.
"It's a challenge for Māori to get elected, but not impossible.
"Māori can be elected in any seat, on any council, at any time."
Barber was also keen to help participants understand what it meant to be a good councillor once elected and how to be an effective councillor from day one.
"You need to get half of your council plus one," he said.
The first of three wānanga, which is open to people from around the country, will be a two-day event held at Pukemokimoki marae in Napier on March 26-27.
A range of presenters from a variety of backgrounds will also share ideas on the different successful paths to politics.
Topics covered in the wānanga will include fundraising, campaign spending, promotional strategies and tools, political resumes, difficult issues and tricky electorates.
It costs $250, which includes lunch and accommodation at the marae as well as an electronic copy of the book used by Barber and Ormsby to run their campaign with inserts of their own experiences.
To register or find out more visit, forms.gle/PRe5eEJ8W6dqFouFA
