For the last 15 or so years Sport Northland has been on a journey towards being a bicultural organisation – with the ultimate aim of increasing the number of Māori who are physically active to in turn positively impact on their wellbeing.
And while operationally we have made big strides in that journey, the Sport Northland board has been slower to progress (although the last couple of years has seen significant learning curve for the board as a whole).
Three years ago the board set a goal of working towards co-governance with Māori – specifically, that the board consist of 50 per cent Māori. At the organisation's 2021 AGM held recently, two trust deed remits were unanimously passed by members present to ensure this goal becomes a reality.
The first was a resolution to acknowledge in the trust deed that He Whakaputanga (the Declaration of Independence, signed, mainly by Northern Tribes, in 1835) and Te Tiriti o Waitangi (signed five years later) are Aotearoa New Zealand's founding documents and that this confirms Sport Northland's commitment to upholding the mana of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, including both the articles and the principles of the document.