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Ki te taha o tōku matua
Ko Pirongia tōku maunga
Ko Oparau tōku awa
Ko Kawhia tōku moana
Ko Tainui tōku waka
Ko Te papa o Karewa tōku whenua
Ko Whakamarurangi te rangatira
Ko Rakataura te tangata
Ko Waipaapa tōku marae
Ko Ngāti hikairo tōku iwi.
Ki te taha o tōku whaea,
Ko Karioi tōku maunga
Ko Pakoka tōku awa
Ko Aotea tōku moana
Ko Te Papa o Whatihua tōku whenua
Ko Hoturoa te tangata
Ko Te Wehi te rangātira
Ko Te Papatapu tōku marae
Ko Ngāti Te Wehi tōku iwi
Ko Inia tōku ingoa
He uri ahau nō te Tai Hauā Uru o Waikato-Tainui.
My name is Inia and I’m passionate about all things Taiao, Te ao Māori, manākitanga and music to name a few. I grew up in Cambridge, but also, spent a lot of time growing up at home in kawhia and Raglan where a lot of my whānau still reside. We have strong whakapapa links to Maniapoto also and my grandparents on my mother’s side lived there in Bennydale, so I was lucky enough to have the Taiao introduced to me at a young age in these small but abundant rohe.
Growing up in Cambridge I was privileged enough to grow up among a lot of friends, particularly the Wirihana whānau, who I now consider whānau, who are uri of Ngāti Koroki Kahukura which also gave me the opportunity to spend a lot of time among them at Maungatautari and Pōhara marae, I’ve been here for a long time now and my Aroha for the people and the whenua here grows everyday, they’ve done so much for me growing up given me so much aroha and opportunities over the years and I was even lucky enough to fall in love with my beautiful wahine Te Puia from Ngāti Koroki and have 3 beautiful tamariki Kalani, Rangitamoe and my son Te Hono-Inia before finding my own whakapapa into Ngāti Koroki Kahukura through my Ngāti te wehi whakapapa. My tūpuna is MARIU, daughter of Korokis son Hape and wife to my tuupuna te wehi, which explained to me why I’ve always been here and why I’ve always had so much aroha for this rohe and it’s people.
My role within the iwi, particularly MDLP, is on the Taiao team alongside Hema Tauroa, who has been a huge inspiration and awesome to work with. This is an absolute dream job for me, I look forward to coming to mahi everyday and I consider myself lucky. My passion lies here, I te tiaki o te whenua, and I’m passionate about taking care of our whenua and resources not only for our babies and future generations but for our papa herself, she deserves it, they (our atua) deserve it and, we deserve it. In my whakaaro, there should be no mahi more important to us as Maaori than to tiaki our whenua, our wai, our Taiao. To see my tamariki and their tamariki carry on this mahi is the ultimate goal for me tiaki te whenua, tiaki te wai, tiaki te Taiao,tiaki te iwi. I love this mahi.
Mahia te mahi hei painga mo te iwi.
MAURI AROHA, MAURI ORA