Kua hinga he totara i te wao nui a Tane. Today, we mourn the loss of Tony "Tank" Gordon, a dedicated leader within Te Wananga o Aotearoa and a respected rugby player and rugby league coach. Tank was my union rep at Te Wananga and, while I only spoke to him a few times, he was a genuine, humble, help-a-brother-out-kind-of-man. A totara has truly fallen. All of our aroha to the Gordon whanau.
It has been an amazing two weeks. To the organisers of the Te Arawa Games, thank you for bringing many hapu, many whanau together to play, compete, sweat and laugh together. Our nephew loved the power pulling and we heard the badminton was fiercely contested; a game I haven't played since Sunset Intermediate days. Kei te mihi nui ki te Arawa Papatakaro and the organising committee.
An initial group came together at the invitation of Jill Campbell to look at updating the Rotorua District Council youth policy. We are fortunate to have lots of good people out supporting youth initiatives, but every policy needs to better reflect what people want and, in this case, what rangatahi want to see in Rotorua over the next five years. We talked about better promoting what was happening around the city so at least young people know what is going on and there was a sense of urgency as we have immediate crisis points such as youth suicide and high youth unemployment. This looks to be a good korero over the next few months.
Over the weekend, Ngati Whakaue brother and Spartacus actor Manu Bennett called together Te Arawa leaders to discuss the future of the whare taonga Te Tiki o Tamamutu. The beautifully designed whare, named after a famous Tuwharetoa chief, was created as a tourist attraction in Taupo back in the late 1890s, early 1900s. The new owners wanted to sell the land and the whare, which is of such rare quality it has set the international market drooling. We know that once Tamamutu leaves, he may never come home so a combined Te Arawa effort is being rallied to see what can be done for future iwi to learn more about this exquisite taonga. There are lots of challenges ahead for us, so more soon on this kaupapa.
Inside the Rotorua District Council, I still feel that the Te Arawa standing committee are being disrespected, ignored and over-ruled. We get no support for kaupapa, our marae or hapu put forward through us, with some saying TASC is just wasting its time. I think the opposite. The more time we spend putting those issues on the table, like how Ngati Pikiao hate that council wants to put a sewerage treatment plant in their rohe, cutting through their land to lay the pipes and then charging them to connect to the scheme, is important. We all understand process but need the council to acknowledge our tikanga, kawa equally. My old people will be coming to the TASC hui this year to back us up and I invite you as well. Please come for a listen, a korero and a cuppa.