April 11, 2019
Rotorua Lakes seeks bridge to iwi
There's a changing of the guard at the Rotorua Lakes Council.
The council, Te Tatau o Te Arawa and Te Arawa Lakes Trust have joined forces to recruit a leader to guide council's relationship with the iwi.
Chief executive Geoff Williams says Ngāti Whakaue kaumātua Monty Morrison is stepping down from the kaitiaki ahurea Māori role to give him more time to fulfill his tribal leadership commitments.
He says the new Te Ahurei position won't try to replicate what Mr Morrison did but will build on what was just the first part of the journey.
"The work that Monty has done has taken us forward to where we are identifying some major challenges. There is a lot of work going on led by Te Tatau o Te Arawa about a Te Arawa vision. So what we need to do is start saying what does the next leg of the journey look like, how do we support Te Arawa to achieve its vision while at the same time looking at the council's obligations and undertaking those," Mr Williams says.
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