Tēnā koutou e te iwi,
Yesterday we farewelled our kuia Aunty Isobel Smith. I will greatly miss Aunty Isobel, particularly her pickles, her honesty and her straight shooting remarks. She enjoyed attending iwi events and was often the last to leave. The eulogies yesterday spoke of a kind and generous person who took care of whānau and she will be missed by many.
We have been part of Marlborough Economic Recovery group (called TEAM Marlborough) and have submitted on the short term recovery plan which was rolled out last week. A copy of the report and information behind this is found here. Work on the long term recovery plan starts this week. Māori employment is disproportionately affected and hence the focus for our submissions has been Māori employment in Wairau.
We appealed recently on the proposed Marlborough Environment Plan last week with three other Iwi. It is misguided and wrong for the plan to recognise 218 listed trees but only 9 listed archaeological sites in one of the first settled places in Aotearoa with archaeology dating back to at least the 13th Century. We will be keeping a close eye on this.
Finally, tough times are expected over the next few months so please give us a call if you need help. Unemployment and the issues that go with this are going to become major issues in coming weeks as economic realities become apparent. We are looking at ways we can counter this and I will report back with more detail on this shortly.
Ngā mihi,
Nick