Tāmata Hauhā claims top prize at Te Manu Atatū Māori Business Awards

Multimedia journalist·Whanganui Chronicle·

2 Jul, 2023 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Blair Jamieson (far right) with Tāmata Hauhā colleagues at the Te Manu Atatu Māori Business Awards.

It was a big night for carbon forestry firm Tāmata Hauhā at this year’s Te Manu Atatū Māori Business Awards.

Tāmata Hauhā founder Blair Jamieson said it was “pretty touching and humbling” to take home the Supreme Winner prize.

“It was really refreshing. It’s been a pretty intense 20 months of business, and there’s been a lot of times [when] it’s felt like butting your head against a wall in trying to grow.

“To be recognised the way that we were, I couldn’t begin to explain for me, personally, the value of that.”

Jamieson said Tāmata Hauhā had been in business for under two years but had planted five million trees per year during that time.

“It’s been a pretty crazy two years. I think the thing that really helped our business was that coming into this space, we’d done so much engaging with Māori landowners.

“We’ve shown landowners you can earn just as much money using species other than pine under the Emissions Trading Scheme - now we’ve got people dairy farming under tree canopies and doing high-value horticulture on farms.”

The company also won the ‘Environmental Excellence’ and ‘X-Factor’ awards at the event, which was held at the Whanganui War Memorial Centre on Saturday, July 1.

Jamieson said he planned to continue growing from strength to strength.

“The solar farming side of the business is going to be huge for us, it’ll probably overtake the forestry side pretty quickly, but we’ll continue to provide landowners with both options.”

Te Manu Atatū Māori Business Network chairman Hayden Potaka said Saturday night’s ceremony recognised exceptional Māori businesses.

“The theme was Puanga, to emphasise a time [when] we celebrate success but also start the new year.

“It’s not profit that drives the awards, it’s around manaakitanga, whakapapa and kaitiakitanga.”

Potaka said the current economic climate would mean businesses would have to hunker down to ride out a difficult season.

“It’s a hard time for businesses and it’s going to be tough for the next while - business owners might have to think about doing things differently or working more collaboratively.

“But you can’t stop dreaming and re-imagining what business could look like.”