Kahungunu holds its 13th Fish Hook Summit and celebrates Matariki despite a bruised and battered ihu - 

The 13th Ngāti Kahungunu Fish Hook Summit was held on 26 June 2024. In the morning of that day, severe weather warnings were announced regarding the moderate chance of upgrading from the orange to a red weather warning. The Impact reported that streams and rivers may rise rapidly as well as surface flooding, slips, and difficult driving conditions. Organisers had planned an online live stream for participants as a normal back-up for those unable to attend. The view from the Napier War Memorial Conference Centre was certainly a sight to behold with the raging sea right in view, only metres away from where we stood in what we felt, the safety of the building, even though we could see driftwood right outside the windows where the raging ocean had come right up to the building during high tide only hours before.    

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Registrations sat around the 200 mark and organisers are pleased that 85% of those registered participants attended in person with an added 30 whānau members who had not previously registered, The first to arrive were NKII Board members Nigel How from Wairoa and Melissa Ihaka from Wairarapa, both had arrived the night before to make the early morning start. They were smartly joined by co-Board members, Chairman Bayden Barber, and Southern Taurahere representative Brian Ruawai-Hamilton. Local Taiwhenua Chairman Hori Reti gave his apologies as he joined the waka crew attending to the damages of Te Matau a Māui waka that had occured overnight due to rough weather conditions. 

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The theme of this event was 'Charting our Taiao Future 'with a specific focus on reviewing the past 25-year vision and looking forward to the future. We discussed the great changes that exist in this current environment and looked at changing our priorities in accordance to what we know now and what we can foresee will happen in the future.  

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Presenters included keynote speaker - Professor Chellie Spiller who spoke about Wayfinding Leadership, using wisdom for developing potential, and the importance of 

sharing our light and knowledge with those around us. "True success is succession".  

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Taiwhenua representatives fed back on some of the Taiao goals and aspirations they have set and achieved so far. The work that each Taiwhenua is doing in the Taiao space is amazing. Wayne Ormsby spoke about the Emergency containers that Te Whanganui A Orotu has secured to assist each marae during natural weather emergencies. He spoke about how some of the work they are doing may not manifest the results for a few years, but that the work is in progress. He spoke of collaborative approaches that are proving good. Alby spoke about Te Mana o te Wai the power and authority of the water and how it should be treated with respect as the life-blook of the land. "We must protect and maintain our water". Marei Apatu spoke passionately about celebrating all marae for standing up and being there for each other and their communities. He spoke of the many people, the divers and souljahs of tomorrow. Crystal Pekepo of Te Taiwhenua o Tamatea used the analogy of Ruahinetanga as the wise Kuia, the phases of life, Being constant. "It's about depth, the spread of wisdom". Wairoa environmentalist Katarina Kawana spoke about the people of Wairoa and the importance of kotahitanga among ourselves to ensure we move forward together. Katherine Gayle of Pahauwera spoke about river monitoring and jobs for nature.

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Kate McArthur, spoke about ngā Pou Mataara Cultural Monitoring Framework. She shared fabulous footage of the project she is involved with regarding the whenua and the awa being intact and healthy. Tina Porou spoke about Te Mana o Te Wai and keeping calm and carrying on. Mike Smith spoke about Climate change and gave an  interesting presentation on the environmental future and how things will look very different to how they are now. Mike Smith acknowledged all of the links between iwi and the Kahungunu activists of old, Moana Jackson, Mereana Pitman, Ngatai Huata, Raihania Tipoki. He spoke about the earth heating up and causing chaos. He took us well ahead to 2100 and how the environment will be totally different. 

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NKII Taiao me ona Rawa directorate team, Shade and Ngaio finished off the day with their korero and the overwhelming mahi that they are involved with. Shade spoke about stepping up to the challenge in the Taiao space. He spoke of the 3 R's Relationship, Relevance, and Resource. The journey and the destination are equally important. Ngaio gave us food for thought, asking us what the bottom line is, what is the triple bottom line, the quadruple bottom line. Māori have a quadruple bottom line that must consider Economic, Cultural, Environment, Social, and Economic goodness. When we have a holistic outlook we consider the unseen obligations. Ngaio challenged us to know and understand our own marae vision and aspirations. He shared some of the work they are having to do to protect our whanau from being deceived by organisations aspirations which differ from ours. He used really good analogies to highlight environmental issues and how we can be better environmental warriors.  

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A summary of notes, photos of the event, the actual video and presentations notes can be viewed from this website so you can view these at your leisure.