Māori farmers are backing an iwi-led agricultural training programme that aims to produce more Māori farming managers.
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Ngāti Awa chief executive Enid Ratahi-Pryor manages Tumurau and Ngakauroa Farms in Whakatāne. Photo: SUPPLIED
Ngāi Tahu Farming, one of the partners in Whenua Kura, expects 300 students to graduate from the programme's courses over the next five to six years - and many Māori-owned farms are keen to take these students on.
Whenua Kura is an iwi-led partnership between Ngāi Tahu, Te Tapuae o Rehua, Ngāi Tahu Farming and Lincoln University with the aim of growing more Māori leaders in agriculture.
It runs certificate and diploma courses for Māori students, not just from Ngāi Tahu but for anyone who has Māori ancestry.
The programme manager, Renata Hakiwai, said there was now a big push among Māori farm owners to employ their own tribal descendants to run the properties.
He said Whenua Kura was already having an impact.
"When you think about it, a lot of Māori are the owners and governors [of their farms], but when you think of management they're all managed by non-Māori," he said.
"This year in Whenua Kura, two of our students ended up being farm managers on two of our [Ngāi Tahu] diary farms, so that was a success for us."
That is the kind of success Bay of Plenty iwi Ngāti Awa is dreaming of having - its iwi members running their own farms too.
Ngāti Awa chief executive Enid Ratahi-Pryor manages Tumurau and Ngakauroa Farms in Whakatāne.
She said Whenua Kura would help realise her iwi's dream.
"It's the dream of many and specifically for Ngāti Awa to have, one day, Ngāti Awa people managing Ngāti Awa farms," she said.
"Currently we have three farms and we've got no Ngāti Awa managers and so the core thing - run by Ngāi Tahu [and it] contributes to that long-term aspiration for Ngāti Awa and other iwi - is having our own people manage our own farms."
Mr Hakiwai said Whenua Kura was keen to work with other iwi.
"For us, it's about collaboration with other iwi. This year we had a number of students from Te Ika ā Māui (the North Island) come down right up from Te Aupōuri to learn about how we farm down here in collaboration with Lincoln, so that young fella can go back and run the family farm."
However, Blair Waipara, a land development manager with Te Tumu Paeroa (the Māori Trustee), said creating a new generation of farm leaders was not just a Māori concern.
"It's an industry problem in general, and that is the requirement for capability to continue to be built for future generations - particularly with regard to advising on, and managing, multiply-owned Māori land assets - is absolutely critical."
Mr Hakiwai said Whenua Kura wanted to expand its courses next year to cover forestry, horticulture, research and apiary studies.