The Otamataha Trust owns a half share of the land under the Cargo Shed on Dive Crescent with the Tauranga City Council. The Trust has had the Dive Crescent area renamed Taumata Kahawai as part of that shared ownership.

Tauranga City Council has refurbished the Cargo Shed. It was blessed by Puhirake recently and is now ready to be used and produce some income for the Trust. ​

Further details will be given at the AGM, but if you are on Willow Street, you will see the Trust featuring on the signage around the site. ​

The 2021 Annual General Meeting of the Otamataha Trust will be held at 10.00 am on Saturday 23 April 2022 at Huria Marae, Tauranga.

Agenda:

1. Karakia and mihi.
2. Report on the operations of the Trust.
3. Present and review the Annual Report and audited annual accounts for the period ended 31 March 2021.
4. Present and review the Annual and 5-year plan for the Trust.
5. Any other notified business.
6. At the discretion of the Chairman, any other general business raised at the meeting.
7. Karakia and closing.

The hui will be followed by light refreshments. 

​
Puhirake Ihaka, Peri Kohu
Co-Chairmen. 

​The 2020 Annual General Meeting of the Otamataha Trust will be held at 10.00 am on Saturday 21 November 2020 at Waikari Marae, Matapihi, Tauranga.

There will be a cup of tea available from 9:30 am for those who want to get there a little early for some whanaungatanga.

​Agenda:

1. Karakia and mihi
2. Report on the operations of the Trust.
3. Present and review the Annual Report and audited annual accounts for the period ended 31 March 2020.
4. Present and review the Annual and 5-year plan for the Trust.
5. Any other notified business.
6. At the discretion of the Chairman, any other general business raised at the meeting.
7. Karakia and closing.

The hui will be followed by light refreshments.
 
Puhirake Ihaka
Chairman. 

The Council will be reviewing the options for the future of 11 Mission Street at 10:30am on the 17th of December in Council Chambers.

Below is a link to the Report to be considered by Council:
http://econtent.tauranga.govt.nz/data/bigfiles/committee_meetings/2019/December/agen_council_17dec2019.pdf

This meeting will also be streamed, and can be viewed on the following link:
https://www.tauranga.govt.nz/council/about-your-council/council-meetings-agendas-and-minutes/live-stream-council-meetings

The 2019 Annual General Meeting of the Otamataha Trust will be held at 10.30 am on Saturday 9 November 2019 at Huria Marae, Te Kaponga Street, Tauranga.

Agenda:
1.. Karakia and mihi
2.. Report on the operations of the Trust.
3.. Present and review the Annual Report and audited annual accounts for the period ended 31 March 2019.
4.. Present and review the Annual and 5 year plan for the Trust.
5.. Any other notified business.
6.. At the discretion of the Chairman, any other general business raised at the meeting.
7.. Karakia and closing.

The hui will be followed by light refreshments.
 
Puhirake Ihaka
Chairman. 

Show your support and have your say on the future of 11 Mission Street
​
On Tuesday 18 December 2018, in recognition of our historic and cultural connection with the area, Tauranga City Councillors agreed in-principle to gift 11 Mission Street to the Otamataha Trust.

The proposed transfer comes with an ongoing lease, which will allow the Elms Foundation to continue its development of 11 Mission Street as a reception and education centre.

The long term lease would be with a ‘peppercorn rental’ meaning the Elms Foundation would pay a minimal payment.

The Tauranga City Council has started the consultation process and would like to hear feedback from the community. We would appreciate your support in providing positive feedback to the Tauranga City Council on the transfer and return of this land to local iwi. You have until 5pm on the 8th of July to show your support and have your say.

Noho ora mai.

The Otamataha Wānanga will be held on Saturday 22nd of June at Huria marae from 9:30am to 12pm.
​
Speakers at the Otamataha Trust AGM on 8 December 2018 raised matters relating to manawhenua and Otamataha.

This wānanga has been arranged by the Otamataha Trust following the request to do so made at that AGM so that this discussion could continue.

Wānanga outline:

• In keeping with the wānanga format, there is no formal agenda but there will be the opportunity to add to the points made at the AGM with respect to Otamataha and manawhenua.
• This will be followed by structured dialogue and discussion.
• The objective of the wānanga is to enable a better understanding of Otamataha and manawhenua.
• There will be facilitator on the day who is not an Otamataha trustee.
• The discussion on the day will determine what happens next.  

The Trustees of the Otamataha Trust have resolved to offer opportunities to learn about trust governance and management by working with the trust in its day to day operations.

The objectives of the scheme are :

• To give those selected to take part an insight in to the way in which trusts and in particular trusts administering assets on behalf of whanau, hapu and iwi trust should manage their governance and administration, and
• To provide a pathway for those who may be interested in offering themselves as potential trustees for the Otamataha Trust when the need arises.

Those selected to take part in the scheme will:

• Be appointed for a term of 1 year.

• Be entitled to attend trust meetings. They will have speaking rights at the discretion of the Chairman but no voting rights.
• Be allocated tasks or projects relevant to their skills that assist the trustees with the administration of the trust.
• Report to the trust with the findings of their task or project.
• Be eligible for funding to attend appropriate seminars or training.
• Need to be available to attend trustee meetings every 6 weeks and to have 2-3 hours a week for trust matters. 
• Receive a koha on the successful completion of their term.      

The Trust is now calling for applications from anyone interested in taking part in the scheme. Successful applicants will need to demonstrate:

• An interest in and a background of involvement in hapu activities.
• An interest in the Otamataha Trust and its objectives.
• An interest in learning more about trust administration generally.
• Skills and experience that are relevant to the Trust and its activities.

To apply email a letter outlining why you should be considered for the opportunity and what skills and qualities you could bring to the role.

​You can contact the Trust Manger, Alan Tate for any further information on alan@otamataha.maori.nz

Applications should be emailed to the trust at admin@otamataha.maori.nz and be received by
​Friday 19th October 2018.

The members of General Synod rose to their feet this afternoon and stood in heavy silence as Archbishop Philip made a formal apology to a small group representing Tauranga Moana iwi. That small ope was representing hapu and iwi who, because of the church's actions in 1866, lost their ancestral land and were thrown into a poverty from which they have struggled to escape ever since.

The apology concerns the sale by the Church Missionary Society of a 1300-acre land block to the colonial government – on which downtown Tauranga has since been built. Bishop Andrew Hedge explained the history of that transaction during his speech to the apology motion.

In the 1830s, he told the synod, the tribes of Tauranga Moana had asked CMS to come into their area. In 1838, Archdeacon Alfred Brown did so on CMS's behalf, and he then negotiated with local Maori leaders to buy a 1300 acre block for use as the base for the CMS mission station. Then in 1866, the Church Missionary Society Central Lands Board resold most of that land to the colonial government.
#
"This land," explained Bishop Andrew, "is the heart of Tauranga City, land upon which the government made a settlement and upon which a city has grown.
"This land, however, was not sold to the CMS for the purposes of developing a city.
"Rather, the purchase that Brown negotiated was understood by the CMS to represent a sacred and solemn trust in order to develop the works of the mission and to protect the interests and mana whenua of local Maori – of nga iwi o Tauranga Moana, including Ngati Tapu and Ngai Tamarawaho."
Furthermore, explained Archbishop Philip, the sale of that land, without the agreement of Ngati Tapu and Ngai Tamarawaho, was a "basic moral error".
Because in age-old Maori understanding, he said, land which was given or sold by them for a specific purpose is only available for that purpose.
Once the land is no longer used or required for that purpose, it is to be returned to those who continue to exercise mana whenua­ over that land.
Hence, today's apology.
#
It's clear, nonetheless, that CMS was being placed under extreme pressure by the colonial government to sell the Tauranga mission land to them. Bishop Hedge described the climate the CMS Land Board, Brown and Henry Williams found themselves in, nearly 30 years after the establishment of the mission, as "one of fractured relationships, broken trust and an intense pressure from the government to obtain land for the development of Pakeha settlement in Tauranga Moana."

In the face of that pressure, Archdeacon Brown and Williams had tried to fend the government off. They had protested several times, and had drawn the parallel of Naboth's Vineyard (2 Kings 21) – which is a story about greed, and the theft of a powerless person's birthright. In the end, though, Brown and Williams had caved in to that pressure. Their part in the Tauranga mission lands story, said Bishop Andrew, is "a story of human failure under intense pressure, a story of integrity and high values that yielded to the forces of power, authority and greed."
#
Evan Turbott, from the Diocese of Waiapu, was one who rose to speak in support of the apology. He explained that he'd lived in Tauranga for 25 years – so he hoped he belonged there. But that was nothing, he said, compared to the people "who had lived, loved and depended upon that land" for hundreds of years.
Evan said he came to the motion "contrite over the broken faith of 1866, and the long, long, long years of official and societal indifference" to the generations who had been displaced by that broken faith.
#
Peri Kohu, who is a Ngai Tamarawaho kaumatua, spoke briefly in response to the apology.
"I know that our people invited the church to Tauranga," he told the synod. "And that we gave them a place to stay. That we gave them gardens and lands to live by.
"At that time," he said, "our ancestors were happy."
After the loss of their ancestral lands, however, "we lost our way a little bit... And I've spent my life time, and my parents and grandparents have spent their lifetimes, trying to figure that out.
"But today I see us coming together again. So on behalf of our people, I want to offer sincere thanks and gratitude to each and every one of you here. Who have seen the wisdom, and who have felt the spirit of reconciliation.
"Because in our corner of the world, people are still hurting from the actions that were taken by the colonial government in 1866.
"We have struggled to return to our former glory in what, in my eyes, is the most beautiful part of the country.
"Our Heavenly Father, God himself, put my people there.
"So I want to say thank you once. I want to thank you twice. I want to thank you three times.
"And I offer a prayer, that our Lord and out God would continue to bless this gathering."
#
In passing Motion 14, which is the formal apology for the loss of the mission lands, General Synod also recorded the church's commitment "to continue to pray for a final and mutually agreeable settlement to the Tauranga Moana land case before the Waitangi Tribunal."
The resolution also:
Receives the report: "Naboth's Vineyard: Towards reconciliation in Tauranga Moana" researched and presented by the historian Dr Alistair Reese;
Notes that the pressure placed by the colonial government on the Church Missionary Society Central Lands Board "was undue and inappropriate";
Expresses the opinion that this pressure "constitutes a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi… in terms of the Crown's obligations regarding partnership, protection and participation of Maori gifted/sold land for particular purposes, as well as a breach of local Maori rangatiratanga of Maori land sold in good faith for a particular purpose, and held in trust by a recipient body for that purpose only...
Is 'affirming of the Waitangi Tribunal hearing of the Tauranga Moana land case';
Affirms previous action by the late Archbishop Whakahuihui Vercoe, Bishop George Connor and Mr Don Shaw in returning a small parcel of the remaining CMS land to the Tauranga Moana Otamataha Trust;
Affirms Archbishop Philip's request to ask Archbishop emeritus David Moxon to liase with with both the Otamataha Trust and various Anglican parties, including the Bishop of Waiapu, te Pihopa o Te Manawa o Te Wheke and the National Director of the New Zealand Church Missionary Society (NZCMS) – recognising that today's NZCMS is not legally related to the nineteenth century Church Missionary Society Central Lands Board;
And asks Archbishop Philip and Archbishop Don to report progress to the General Synod Standing Committee – and empowers GSSC to support and endorse "any actions needed and any applications made to church entities, trusts or donors in the restorative justice process…"

The resolution sets the stage for further discussions with the Otamataha Trust so that justice can be obtained and the mana of mana whenua restored. 

To view the original article visit http://www.anglicantaonga.org.nz/news/general_synod/naboth 

​The first Annual General Meeting of the Otamataha Trust will be held at 10am on Saturday 12 December 2015 at the Tauranga Moana Trust Board hall, 3 The Strand Tauranga.

Agenda:

1. Karakia timatanga and mihi
2. Report on the operations of the Trust.
3. Present and review the Annual Report and audited annual accounts for the period ended 31 March 2015.
4. Present and review the Annual and 5 year plan for the Trust.
5. Any other notified business.
6. At the discretion of the Chairman, any other general business raised at the meeting.
7. Karakia mutunga.

The hui will be followed by light refreshments.

No reira haere mai, naumai, pikimai ki te tautoko i te kaupapa nei, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa

Puhirake Ihaka
Chairman.