Taranaki iwi band together to help uri gain contracts and jobs

Ngāti Maru's Anaru Marshall says Te Tāmoremorenui can be a conduit to help uri gain contracts and jobs.

Three of Taranaki’s smaller iwi have banded together in a contracting consortium to tender for commercial and government work on behalf of members.

Te Tāmoremorenui is a commercial entity set up by Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama with an initial focus on planting, forestry and conservation.

Te Kāhui Maru pouwhakahaere (chief executive) Anaru Marshall said Te Tāmoremorenui was initially bidding for contracts with government agencies the tribes are already working with.

“Within Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama there’s some big Waka Kotahi projects going on and there’s a whole social procurement process that goes alongside some of those contracts. In Ngāti Maru rohe there’s Te Wera forest but there’s also a number of other forests established by offshore companies and so we’d like to engage and provide services to their operations.”

Marshall said Te Tāmoremorenui would not necessarily aim to do the work itself but help with expressions of interest and tender documents.

“They’re hefty documents and there’s a lot of due diligence involved.

“The entity itself could procure the contract and then subcontract to uri (iwi members) who are already active in that space.

“It’s an opportunity to open some doors for some of those companies to employ more of our people.

“But there’s also direct employment as well – so Te Tāmoremorenui could be employing people along the way to deliver some of those contracts.”

He said eco-sourcing seeds, propagating, growing and maintaining trees for Waka Kotahi, pest control for councils across Taranaki, and setting up forestry work crews were all prospects.

An immediate goal for new business development manager Bronwyn Koroheke was to maintain six jobs created under the Government’s Jobs for Nature programme during the Covid pandemic.

“Apart from having our longstanding whakapapa relationships, that whole Tokomaru thing, we also have a Jobs for Nature project called Te Kōhanga Āhuru … a tripartite arrangement for Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Maru to carry out kiwi conservation work in those forests where our rohe intersect.”

Marshall said there was no plan from government agencies about what happens when the two-to-three-year contracts end.

“It would have been a shame to have brought these uri on, employed them for three years and then the money dries up. We’d like to keep upskilling them as we pick up different contracts in diversified sectors, then we could move them around so they could still be doing some conservation work but then another day they may be doing something else.”

He said Covid had shown the importance of iwi collaboration.

“We were able to respond quickly and with agility to some of the big issues that were affecting not just our people but the wider community as well – it demonstrated that it’s a practical and effective way of operating.”

Marshall said Te Tāmoremorenui was set up because it was difficult to negotiate commercial deals for the post-settlement governance entities (PGSEs) Te Kāhui Maru, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Mutunga and Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Tama.

“PGSEs are private trusts and so we’re a bit clunky. They’re designed more to interact with our own people, and hold assets on their behalf, and also engage with the Crown.

“But it’s kind’ve like management by committee. When it comes to being agile and being able to react in a commercial capacity it’s a bit limiting.

“Ngāti Tāma, Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Maru are not three of the largest iwi in the region and by joining up and collaborating we are sharing not just resources but capacity and capability as well.”

He said Te Tāmoremorenui would likely stay small and skilled.

“It can have a broader impact through the contracting and subcontracting arrangements. We’re not looking to set up a big empire – it’s the conduit.”

Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.