Fostering knowledge and aspirations is vital

It was Kingi Tawhiao who said "Maku ano e hanga i toku nei whare" - I will build my own house. In many ways this statement articulates everything Whanau Ora is about: being empowered, taking control of your own affairs, determining your own needs and working towards building something for the future.

Over quarter of a century ago, at our marae at Whangaehu, we built our wharenui using the rammed earth method of construction. Our whare is warm, beautiful, eco-friendly and we had made the form our own. It is the most incredible feeling to know we were ultimately responsible in every sense for the strength and the resilience of our tribal home.

It has become harder for our families to achieve this sense of empowerment. With colonisation came an erosion of land, identity and resources, and once all those things have been removed, it is very difficult to operate from a base of confidence or empowerment.

Over many generations, we have had leaders, prophets and change-makers who have understood this, and who have moved across many fronts to find space for our knowledge in order to remedy the fate of our whanau.

This has been a multi-generational struggle, and it is on-going. In fact, many of us in our day-to-day lives are advancing the future of our whanau by breaking stereotypes, removing barriers, building a bridge of cultural understanding between organisations and tangata whenua.

One key issue that has acted as a barrier for Maori development has been that our entire State and system of government has been established upon Western philosophy. It does not fit within our world view, and we have spent countless hours justifying, explaining and proving how we see the world and how we operate is valid, meaningful and works for us.

Whanau Ora has been about creating the space for our aspirations and our knowledge to be fostered. There are other areas where this work is going on. You can see slow but progressive movement across a range of fronts.

We have established whare wananga, wharekura, kura kaupapa Maori and kohanga reo, which have proven successful in revitalising our language while also achieving educational outcomes; we have seen the proliferation of Maori health and social services that work to advance our wellbeing aspirations; the rise and rise of our iwi identity, our runanga system and the strengthening of our culture; the development of Maori business, and the growing awareness of the strength of the Maori economy which has helped non-Maori business to recognise the need to engage with tangata whenua.

The change is slow, but it is happening.

I thought about all of this at the weekend after launching the changes to the kainga whenua scheme, which is a product developed to support Maori trusts, whanau and individuals to get loans to build houses on multiply-owned land.

Our views on housing are intrinsically tied to our sense of self and place, our connection with our land and resources, and of course our whanau. The Kainga Whenua policy was put in place as a means of recognising this link.

In its first form it did not reach the audience for which it is formed, but we have been able to revise it, improve it and make it fit for us. We have increased the income cap for borrowers, opened the eligibility criteria to trusts and individuals who can service a mortgage and expanded the policy to cover not just new builds, but maintenance and repairs on old whare.

To see an initiative which recognises our unique aspirations for housing and provides us with support to explore our own housing aspirations is wonderful. The expanded programme also acknowledges the role of the wider whanau in supporting the well-being of their members.

This is but one area where we have been able to make progress, but of course there is always more work to do. Housing is an area where there is significant need for Maori engagement, and I look forward to seeing more papakainga developments, and more whanau living in safe and healthy homes.

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