Kia ora koutou,

It’s election month already and before we know it, we’ll be gathering with whānau to celebrate Kirihimete! Please do your part to vote for the parties and candidates you want to represent you in Parliament.

The 2020 General Election will now be held on 17 October along with the End of Life Choice and Cannabis referendums.

We’ve had an exciting few weeks here at Te Arawa Fisheries, including finding out that we have been nominated in the Westpac Rotorua Business Awards 2020, for our services to Māori business, and our COVID-19 pivot! You can read more about those below.

We’re also excited to show off our new website which is now at https://tearawafisheries.co.nz/ - you can even order fresh kaimoana from our Te Arawa Fresh Fairy Springs location for a fast click and collect.

Before we let the year get away on us, we will be gathering for our AGM this Saturday, at 9.30am at Tarimano Marae, Awahou. We hope to see as many of you as possible.

October also means we are going to be wrapping up our photo competition next week, with the talented winners taking home $700 worth of prizes. Get your entries in if you haven’t already.

Please read on, share with whānau, and as always get in touch if you’d like to kōrero more.

Ngā mihi nui,

Chris Karamea Insley

Te Oha Hancock – the new face of our mahi

Ka pū te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi

(the old net is cast aside, and the new net goes fishing).

Te Oha (Ngāti Rangiwewehi) joined the Te Arawa Fisheries team this week as the online shop assistant to help support our venture into the online kaimoana market.

CEO, Chris Karamea Insley says Te Oha is a practical example of their kaupapa to grow and support Te Arawa rangatahi who go off to study and get educated and then are welcomed home directly into their organisation bringing with them the knowledge that Te Arawa Fisheries needs to advance their ‘ka pū te ruha’ strategy.

“COVID-19 has changed the way we will operate going forward - new digital technologies are now a foundation for our business and include e-commerce in our retail stores. Te Oha will play an important leadership role for us embedding this technology into the way we do business.”

With a background in tourism and childcare, Te Oha has a Bachelor in Tourism, majoring in Tourism Management and Māori and Pacific Development and looks forward to bringing her expertise to Te Arawa Fisheries.

"I have a passion for working for my  people and I take pride in the mahi I do for my Iwi."

"I'm familiar with the awesome mahi Te Arawa Fisheries does and I'm really looking forward to working alongside the team and growing with my role.”

Bringing with her a strong attention to detail and a drive to help support the business and its re-evaluated post-COVID focus, Te Oha is the perfect person for the job.

Outside of mahi, Te Oha is a proud aunty, enjoys walking the various tracks around the rohe and spending time with her whānau. 

AGM Reminder

We will be having our Annual General Meeting at Tarimano Marae, Awahou, at 9:30am this Saturday, 3 October. 

The agenda is as follows:

- Apologies

- Message from the Chair

- Consultation discussion: Changes to our Trust Deed. We are proposing some changes to shorten and simplify the terms, ensure it is future proof for our ever-changing operating environment, to enable us to achieve our strategic objectives and ultimately so that we can deliver the greatest possible benefit to our whānau. 

- Annual reports and annual plan. You can read the annual report here.

- Resolutions

- General Business

Our Westpac Business Award nomination

We’re humbled  to have been nominated in the Westpac Rotorua Business Awards 2020 which are delivered by the Rotorua Business Chamber.

Te Arawa Fisheries is up for two awards: the Bilingual Business Award, which promotes companies who embrace Te Reo Māori and Tikanga, showcasing the importance and value of Rotorua's bilingual city status.

And the newly established category called Building Back Better. This category will recognise and celebrate an organisation that has found innovative solutions to operating successfully in our new ‘normal’ environment, in the wake of COVID-19.

A phrase we have reflected on a lot this year has been our guiding light:

Ka pū te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi, the old net is cast aside and the new net goes fishing.

As we’ve shared in several of our pānui, Te Arawa Fisheries sees this post-COVID environment as an opportunity to remember our purpose, and find new ways of achieving our goals.

Te Arawa Fisheries' Climate Change Strategy

With our mokopuna in mind, our climate change strategy is now guiding our operations here at Te Arawa Fisheries.

This includes a concerted effort by all our staff to reduce our carbon emissions by reducing our travel, reduce our waste paper by not printing things we don’t need to and making better use of technology.

We have a new digital communications strategy as part of our climate change focus, and are embarking on carbon offset tree planting on our Te Arawa lands.

You can read the strategy here.

Iwi Partnership Grants

In case you missed it in our Annual Report, we were able to support Te Arawa Iwi and whānau with 13 grants totalling $120,000 last financial year.

The grants contributed to a range of kaupapa including: firewood deliveries for kaumātua, helping rebuild the Te Koutu Marae wharekai, covering marae insurance and supporting Te Arawa Ki Tai Charitable Trust with funding for website development that will support live streaming surveillance of Maketū Estuary.

The Iwi Partnership Programme aligns with the Trust’s strategic priorities – the first priority being to support Te Arawa Iwi for successes.

Kaumātua in Rotorua, Taupō, Tokoroa, Waitahanui and Turangi were kept warm and dry over the winter with the Ngāti Tahu – Ngāti Whaoa firewood project, which also provided short term employment for five people.

Another project funded by the Iwi Partnership Programme was funding towards the Te Koutu Marae wharekai upgrade. The wharekai upgrade was completed in March and they are looking forward to hosting more hui, wānanga and other events in the future.

The NZ Certificate in Fishing Vessel Crewing (Level 3) now free at Toi Ohomai

The government has included the New Zealand Certificate in Fishing Vessel Crewing (Level 3), The Advanced Deckhand - Fishing programme in the Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund (TTAF).

This means, anyone looking to obtain their advanced deckhand qualification can do so for free through Toi Ohomai. 

Graduates of this course will be able to work under supervision in the coastal, offshore and unlimited operational limits as specified in the Maritime New Zealand Seafarer Certification and Operational Limits Framework.