June 27, 2024
Home run for urban Māori champion
Former Manukau Urban Māori Authority chair Bernie O’Donnell was today welcomed to a new job back in his turangawaewae – and his former boss was on hand to do the handover to the New Plymouth District Council.
MP Willie Jackson says he’s known the council’s inaugural director of iwi partnerships since they worked alongside each other in Auckland’s Westfield meat works, and he was one of his early hires in setting up Radio Waatea.
Mr O’Donnell overcame an upbringing that led him to give evidence to the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care.
“He came from the toughest of upbringings, just terrible, but he’s an example to others you can rise above that type of upbringing and become such a huge contributor and leader in his own right to te ao Māori,” Mr Jackson says.
Bernie O’Donnell is also co-chair of the Māori language support organisation Te Mātāwai.