Apakura Rūnanga Trust

On Wednesday 3 June, we held another productive hui with Stats NZ as we continue the mahi to locate our uri across Aotearoa and around the world. Together with Stats NZ, we're developing a dedicated programme of work to better understand where our Ngāti Apakura whānau are, creating a clearer picture of our people and their aspirations.

This work will help Ngāti Apakura better understand where our descendants live and what their needs are. Over time, it will provide a strong foundation for reconnection with whakapapa, strategic planning, engagement, and informed decisions about future services, investment, and development opportunities for our iwi.

As Stats NZ explores improved approaches to census design and data collection, our collaboration helps shape how iwi affiliation is captured, recorded, and reported. This supports more accurate data for Ngāti Apakura and other iwi, contributing to a national record that better reflects who we are.

Pictured Left to Right: Taylor Campbell- Stats NZ, Dr Kahu McClintock, Barlow Anderson, Dan Te Kanawa, Golda Varona- Stats NZ, Hōri Griggs

Meet our Identity Zui Guest Panelist: Rohan O'Neill-Stevens 💡
📍 Join the kōrero: Tuakiritanga - Ngāti Apakura Identity Seminar
Tuesday 23 June 2026 | 7pm | Livestreamsed to our page.

To help lead our zui, we’ve invited a panel of guest speakers to share their insights.

We are excited to have Rohan join the kōrero!

Rohan is a young rangatahi leader whose voice carries well beyond his years. Born in 2000, he was elected to Nelson City Council in 2019 as its youngest ever councillor and went on to serve as Deputy Mayor of Nelson from 2022 to 2025.

A scholar who studied in Germany on a prestigious international scholarship, he is now standing as the Green Party candidate for Nelson in the 2026 general election.

Rohan's perspective as a young, politically engaged uri of Ngāti Apakura will bring a vital rangatahi voice to our kōrero on identity.

💬 Drop your questions in the comments about what you'd love to know from our panelists!

Meet our Identity Zui Guest Panelist: Orrin Kapua 💡
📍 Join the kōrero: Tuakiritanga - Ngāti Apakura Identity Seminar
Tuesday 23 June 2026 | 7pm | Livestreamsed to our page.

To help lead our zui, we’ve invited a panel of guest speakers to share their insights.
We are excited to have Orrin join the kōrero!

Grounded in mana whenua values and guided by a long-standing commitment to our people and place, Orrin brings experience in strategic planning, community advocacy, and policy development. His focus is on supporting outcomes that advance the aspirations of our whānau, whenua, and future generations. His foundation? The powerful whakapapa of his mother's landmark work, Kōrero Tuku Iho, and the enduring story of nanny Wikitoria Te Mamae Pahi.

💬 Drop your questions in the comments about what you'd love to know from our panelists!

Meet our Identity Zui Guest Panelist: Larissa Wood 💡
📍 Join the kōrero: Tuakiritanga - Ngāti Apakura Identity Seminar
Tuesday 23 June 2026 | 7pm | Livestreamsed to our page.

To help lead our zui, we’ve invited a panel of guest speakers to share their insights.

We are excited to have Larissa join the kōrero!

Her whakapapa traces to the Waipā rohe on both sides of her father’s family, connecting her to Ngāti Apakura through tūpuna born in Rangiaowhia, Te Rore and Pirongia. Despite this lineage, cultural continuity within her immediate whānau was fractured.

The loss of both her grandparents by the time she was two years old, her father’s long periods away at sea as a master mariner, and his reluctance to speak openly about whakapapa contributed to a gradual disconnection from her Māori identity.

Accounts of language suppression at school and the confiscation of her whānau land in Waikato illuminated the intergenerational trauma shaping this silence.

Having grown up on the North Shore of Tāmaki Makaurau, she moved to Te Waipounamu at 20 years old, where opportunities to reconnect with iwi were limited. After her father’s passing in 2001, the last tangible link to her whakapapa felt lost.

Returning to Tāmaki Makaurau after 24 years opened a pathway back. A distant relative, Tuhiwai Kingi, whom she first connected with online, became a pivotal guide, helping reestablish her relationship with whenua, whanaunga, and her identity as a descendant of Ngāti Apakura. And what a journey it has been!

💬 Drop your questions in the comments about what you'd love to know from our panelists!

🌿 Kia ora e te whānau

See the story below of our Te Ara Roimata haerenga which was captured by Whakaata Māori. The haerenga (and pūrākau) retraced the footsteps of our tūpuna after the 1864 invasion of Rangiaowhia that brought our whānau to Mōkai marae near Taupō. Last weekend we were warmly welcomed by our whanaunga Ngāti Te Kohera, a hapū of Ngāti Tūwharetoa.

After 160 years, the bonds forged by our ancestors in their time of greatest need were renewed and the manaakitanga shown to Ngāti Apakura then is still felt deeply today. We walk forward together, honouring those who carried us through, and keeping the flame of our whakapapa and our relationships alive. 💚

👉 Read the full coverage at the link below and share with your whānau far and wide.

Ngāti Apakura revisit ancestral journey to safety Ngāti Apakura descendants have retraced Te Ara Roimata to reconnect with Ngāti Te Kohera and honour the journey their ancestors took after Rangiaowhia.

Whānau, it’s nearly time!

Later this month, we are coming together for our next Zui — our Tuakiritanga – Ngāti Āpakura Identity Seminar.

We have an incredible panel of voices lined up to kōrero about who we are as uri of Ngāti Āpakura.

This is a safe, welcoming space for us to whakawhanaungatanga, learn from one another, and explore the unique heritage and power that our identity holds.

🗓️ When: Tuesday, 23 June 7:00 PM

💻 Where: Livestreamed to our page

👉🏽 Our Panel Includes:
- Ria Hall
- Larissa Wood
- Rohan O’Neill-Stevens
- Sequoia Short
- Craig West

Save the date, bring your pātai, and let’s connect. See you all there!

💬 Drop your questions in the comments about what you'd love to know from our panelists!

The countdown to our Tuakiritanga - Ngāti Apakura Identity Seminar is on!

📍 Join the kōrero: Tuesday 23 June 2026 | 7pm | Livestreamsed to our page.

As we prepare to dive deeper into our identity, we want to introduce the guest panelists joining the table and kōrero.

To kick things off, we are excited to have wāhine toa Ria Hall join us and the kōrero. Ria Hall is one of the most compelling and fearless musical voices in Aotearoa, an artist whose work sits at the intersection of culture, storytelling, and activism.

Emerging onto the national stage with her debut self-titled EP in 2011, Ria quickly established herself as a powerful force in New Zealand music, winning Best Māori Album at the NZ Music Awards in 2012.

Her sound, a bold fusion of hip-hop, soul, reggae, and electronic textures, is underpinned by richly layered vocals in both te reo Māori and English. Grounded in a deep foundation of traditional Māori performing arts, including nearly a decade with the legendary Te Waka Huia, her artistry carries both whakapapa and evolution in equal measure.

Beyond the music, Ria Hall stands as a cultural force, a wāhine Māori artist committed to expanding the horizons of indigenous storytelling on a global stage, and we are so grateful to have her be a part of the kōrero.

💬 Drop your questions in the comments about what you'd love to know from our panelists!