Ko ngā kai-mahi Māori i roto i ngā ngāhere kei te mihi nui atu ki te hiahia a te kāwanatanga ki te ono rākau, he kotahi piriona te nui hei ngā tau tekau e heke mai nei. E ai ki te kamupene o Toitū Te Waonui, e hia miriona tāra ka taka atu ki ngā kaipupuri whenua māori, ā, ka nui anō ngā tūranga mahi i ngā rtohe tuawhenua.
E hurō ana ngā kaipupuru whenua Māori o Whakapoungākau i te māhere whakatō rākau hōu a te kāwanatanga.
“I like that news, we've been doing this now for the last six or seven years,” i kī atu a John Ransfield, heamana o te tarahiti whenua Māori o Whakapoungākau. “The lease money we were getting was peanuts. The rates was taking all that. So I talked to Toitū Te Waonui and this where we're here today.”
Mai i te tau rua mano tekau mā tahi a Toitū Te Waonui e mahi ngātahi ana i ngā rangatira whenua Māori i ngā rohe o Te Waiariki, Whanganui me Te Taitokerau i ngā kaiwhakangao anō hoki i te motu me tāwāhi, kia hoki tika ai ngā hua ki ngā whānau Māori.
“Hugely exciting,” i mea atu i te kaiwhakatū, a Mike King. “We tried for a number of years under National to get them to partner with us on this project. They felt that they were doing enough in their space. So hearing the announcements in the last couple of days from the new government is really injected a lot of excitement and opportunity and potential into this project.”
Nō tērā tau i whakatō ngā mahuri paina kotahi mano kotahi rau i kora, ki ia heketea i te whenua Māori nei o Whakapoungākau ā, e waru tekau heketea tōna rahi.
“Ko te mea pai o tēnā whakaaro, ka taea ngāi tātou e noho ana i waho i ngā taone nunui, ka whiwhi pea wā tātou tamariki, rangatahi he mahi,” i mea atu a Tā Toby Curtis, koeke nō Te Arawa.
“You have land clearing, you have fencing, you have roading that's jobs. It's all jobs,” i kōrero atu a King.
Wheoi, he whakatūpato hoki nō King.
“We got to be careful that we put people in who have a vision for the future and not somebody whose going to duplicate the past,” i mea mai ia. “So that the ownership of the trees goes back to the landowner."
Ko te whakapae e whā ira waru miriona tāra te hua ki te whenua Māori o Whakapoungākau hei tōna toru tekau tau e haere ake nei.