27 September 2011
PKW Chair Takes Up Maori Trustee Role
PKW Chair, Jamie Tuuta began his new role as the Maori Trust on 23 August 2011 following a powhiri at Pipitea Marae. Three busloads of Taranaki whanui made the 5 hour journey to Wellington to support Jamie as he took up his new position.
Jamie will manage 70 staff based in offices around Aotearoa and be responsible for looking after over 100,000ha of Maori land throughout the country. The Maori Trustee is responsible for looking after the ownership interests of over 190,000 Maori and charged with protecting and building the assets of Maori.
Specific responsibilities include investing and managing funds held in trust, looking after Maori land (and in some cases other assets) where the owners are not known; or where the owners or Maori Land Court have asked the Maori Trustee to take on this role, acting as an agent for Maori land owners (for example managing leases), and looking after certain reserves created in the nineteenth century.
The Maori Trustee was created in the early 20th century – and was originally the called “Native Trustee”. From 1920 until 1976 (when PKW was established) the Maori Trustee was responsible for administering the Parininihi ki Waitotara lands and was responsible for the amalgamation of the Parininihi ki Waitotara Mega Reserve in 1963. It was this action which created the current PKW shareholding system which gives all shareholders interests in all PKW lands.
The Maori Trustee is now appointed by the Minister of Maori Affairs, for a period of up to five years and Jamie will be retiring from the Committee of Management following the 2011 Annual General Meeting to focus on his new role.