August 31, 2021
Te Tauihu readies for the worst
Iwi at the top of the South Island have come together to respond to Covid and other natural and man made disasters.
Dr Lorraine Eade, the operations manager for the new Te Kotahi o Te Tauihu Charitable Trust, says during last year’s lockdowns the eight iwi worked alongside Civil Defence and crown organisations to minimise risk to iwi and Māori.
They formed the trust to do more in-depth planning and delivery, including firing up vaccination plans, setting up a food distribution service Te Pātaka, and developing a response framework including marae emergency plans.
"We want to be prepared for any other iterations that come through, whether it's the earthquake they tell us will come in the next few decades, whether it's flooding, whether it's a biological threat like Covid, it's about being prepared for those next iterations and supporting whānau through that," she says.
Dr Eade says Te Kotahi is already showing its worth with the response to last month’s Wairau floods and the current lockdown.
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