August 12, 2022
Late interest picked for Māori ward spots
A leader of Māori in local government is confident there will be candidates in all the new Māori wards around the country.
Bonita Bigham, who’s on the South Taranaki community board as well as chairing Local Government New Zealand’s Māori collective Te Maruata, says there was concern through the week that not enough people were putting their names forward not just for Māori wards but for general wards and local boards.
But she believes Maori have rallied ahead of today’s noon deadline, and the scene is set for an exciting three years of Māori representation.
“We’ve been riding a wave of trying to influence and trying to make sure councils are hearing us, that they’re becoming more aware and more responsive to our whakaaro and that wave is just starting to crest now and it is time for us to leap into those spaces and really make sure when that wave hits the shore it is a perfectly-formed influential wave of reo Māori, māngai Māori and whakaaro Māori coming through those councils,” she says.
Bonita Bigham says younger elected members across the board seem to have of vision of local government that includes Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
She’s standing this time for the Māori ward on Taranaki Regional Council.