Far North District Council

Community Development Meetings in Ahipara

Kiaora tatou,

Ken Ross and Sheryl Bainbridge from FNDC community development department gave a good effort to facilitate a lively community turnout at Korou Kore marae on Tuesday. Talk was coming in fast from the floor, lots of points being made and a lot of agreement about issues concerning the community from both a maori and a pakeha perspective.

This was a different style of hui from that organised the week before at Rarawa Rugby Club, where the participants were more orderly and abided by the council representatives suggestions.

This community meeting got lots of issues written down and suggestions were well documented. The turnout at Korou Kore marae was triple the size of the hui at the rugby club and the participation made good use of the time set down.

Points raised for the council to consider were:

• Distrust of the effectiveness and commitment from FNDC to this planning process
• Environmental issues need to be addressed before any further developments are consented
• Sewerage and pollution from the dump are always raised at any hui in Ahipara so obviously are important
• Motor bikes and attitudes of tourists during the summer needed to be addressed
• The local maori element was an influential process to utilise
• Local community with a long relationship to the area of Ahipara, especially hapu, had an important role to play in advising and managing the future developments in Ahipara.
• Ensuring that the unique character of Ahipara be maintained
• Ensuring that our children experienced the same pleasures that we had, of fishing and gathering shellfish, as being important
• Having an input in to the education system with emphasis on local knowledge being instilled into local Ahipara school curriculum
• Investment into good education resources for Ahipara to ensure positive participation from the youth
• That maori culture, including te reo maori had an important role to play in the 25 year development plan that was to be created

It was a good show of unity from the community of Ahipara, with plans of a community website, better roads and a kura kaupapa as some of the aspirations in a 25 year plan process.

One point made was that our Ahipara community needed to find our own solutions to the issues raised, not look to outside government departments to solve our problems.

Ken suggested that there was not enough time to get any concrete ideas to take back to his office and that another similar hui should be organised for the new year tentatively in February. The ideas were great, but there needed to be more time for the Ahipara community to come together amongst themselves to get some ground work done on the 25 year plan proposal. All in attendance agreed to this, saying that though it is a struggle to make time for these types of hui, it was looked upon as a positive investment into their future and more importantly into the future of the young generation to make this process an effective one and not end up in a box filed away.

More discussion is likely at Korou Kore marae this Friday when local Ahipara Hapu will be serving a lunch for rangatira from Te Hiku o Te Ika consisting of 6 courses from 6 different countries including Russia and Holland. This lunch will be used to bring the community of Ahipara closer together and to experience different ways that they can use the local talent in their community to enhance Ahipara and the whole of Te Hiku o Te Ika.

Mauriora

Rueben

rporter@xtra.co.nz