November 27, 2023
Shortland quitting a challenge for NRC
A Northland Regional Council member says the resignation of Tui Shortland as chair of the Northland Regional Council should trigger a wider shake-up of the board.
Peter-Lucas Jones says Ms Shortland’s notice of motion will be considered at tomorrow’s full board meeting along with 10 other motions, including one calling for deputy chair Jack Craw to also stand down.
He says as the first wahine Maori chair of a regional council, Ms Shortland brought considerable experience in Maori environmental policy development, and her understanding of the needs of whanau, hapu and iwi had a positive influence on the council.
She steered through a draft plan for consultation including some key focus areas for Maori.
“It’s important for us to remind systems of power that conservation and environmentalism is not the same as kaitiakitanga. Sometimes what happens in this space is there is are dominant cultures, white cultures, that capture indigenous terminology, appropriate that terminology and wear it like a korowai and I will not stand for it,” Mr Jones says.