Wakatū chair Paul Morgan saw his parents invest in people — so he did the same

Vera Kirihau Warmington (Ngāpuhi, Te Māhurehure, Waimā) and Kiwa Morgan (Ngāti Rārua, Te Ātiawa, Motueka) met in Wellington in 1937, part of a wave of Māori urban migration, established a building business in the city’s northern suburbs and had five children.

Son Paul recalls his young life among bulldozers and visitors from Northland or Motueka coming to work for, or do business with, his parents.

“I learned the value of whanaungatanga (relationships), manaakitanga (care and wellbeing), whakapapa (lineage) and the importance of investing in people. My parents were employers and trained many young people.”

What goals do you have for your people?

My mother was a great advocate for employees to own their own homes. Most young men who worked for my parents were relatives trained by Dad as building apprentices. My mother introduced a compulsory savings scheme (which I nicknamed Vera Saver), and 10 per cent of their wages went into a savings account.

It was a requirement of working for my parents. At the time, it was culturally foreign for young staff to be putting down roots in a place other than their whenua (land). They feared it meant not returning to their kāinga (homes). Watching my parents deal with money taught me the importance of owning assets and building equity.

They contributed significantly to the Wellington community, were very active in Ngāti Pōneke and were strong fundraisers for Māori kaupapa, often tapping into their business and political associations for support.

I was 32 when I was elected to a governance role with Wakatū Incorporation. Even then, it was clear there were many things to address, including breaches of the treaty and our relationship with the Crown.

Although a Crown requirement of tribal settlements is the complex and costly creations of legal entities to hold assets, we have seen the benefit of the Wakatū Incorporation in our region. Since 1977, when it started, it has led in building a people-rich organization.

What are the key elements of your leadership experience?

The discipline of organisational culture, a subject that interested me at university, is about creating successful organisations by investing in people and building a critical mass of talent. This is an ongoing intergenerational process.

I have been applying this thinking in the different organisations with which I have been involved — Māori, public, private and start-ups. It frustrates me that New Zealand still has a lot of work to do in this area.

When I first started at Wakatū, I had many elders around me, which provided a fantastic opportunity to learn. Over a long period, I’ve had the good fortune to study many leaders, many of whom are Māori women.

Leaders will be successful if they guide their people, communicate and meet challenges straight on. Some can do that better than others, depending on their experience, their nature and the environment.

What are the challenges, post-settlement?

There is uncertainty in terms of geopolitical issues affecting our country. Māori cannot let the mainstream dominate New Zealand’s foreign relationships as indigenous knowledge is becoming more important globally.

Iwi Māori also must migrate to more knowledge-based activities, focusing on science, technology and digital industries. These industries are more resilient than low-skilled occupations. We need a deliberate strategy to achieve higher levels of education.

By nature of our location and settlement history, we engage with the wider community in terms of property investment and the aquaculture industry. But we are still evolving from passive to active investors and becoming job-makers.

The Ngāti Pōneke Māori Club began in the 1930s as an offshoot of the Ngāti Pōneke Mission Society to support Māori living in Wellington City away from their tribal homelands. Named by Māori leader and politician Sir Apirana Ngata, “Pōneke” is a transliteration of “Port Nicholson” and was Ngata’s way of signaling that the club was open to all Māori, not iwi-based. The Wakatū Incorporation, based in Nelson, manages a diverse portfolio (worth more than $400 million) of aquaculture, vineyards, wine, orchards, large retail developments, food manufacturing, residential properties, office buildings and marine farms. The goal is to preserve the land and resources for future generations — He taonga tuku iho.

The Te Tauihu Intergenerational Strategy can be found at tetauihu.nz

About the author

Amokura Panoho has over 30 years experience in relationship management and engagement, leading community and people centred strategy development, planning and delivery programmes. Her professional roles have included public service union organisation, managing government funding programmes and developing Māori Land Incorporation grants programmes. 

Amokura has chaired Parihaka Papakainga Trust negotiations with the Crown, been an elected board member for Te Atiawa tribal authority, previously chaired NZ Māori Tourism to achieve core funding from government, and the inaugural chair of Shakti Asians Womens Centre negotiating their membership of the National Womens Refuge Collective.  Presently she is the director for Te Matatini, Auckland Unlimited, and a trustee of Auckland Foundation, as well as a director of her consultancy Kura Consulting Limited and a freelance writer.

This article first appeared in NZ Life & Leisure magazine as part of Amokura Panoho's Hautūtanga leadership series.