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One of the architects of the Te Hiku Accord says it’s a chance to make government programmes work for Māori.
Leaders of three far north tribes are in Wellington today and tomorrow talking with government agencies and departments about what they want done in their region.
Rangitane Marsden from Ngāi Takoto says the accord is driven by iwi leaders with experience as public servants who know what doesn’t work and how it can be made to work.
He says high level relationships and a say in how the money is spent are critical.
"Iwi are quite serious, the leadership is quite serious, we know what we're talking about, we know what we need to address. It's a matter of getting departments to understand that there is a change process here and they need to be doing things differently and they need to be working a lot closer with iwi,” Rangitane Marsden says.
He says many of the principles Te Hiku iwi want to implement were set out a generation in the Puao Te Ata Tu report, which were ignored.
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