Waikato Business News | February 7, 2024

2 FEBRUARY 2024
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Hooked on Māori CONTINUED
She worked as an advisory officer out of
the Hamilton branch and in 1989 moved
to manage the Te Kūiti office covering
Ōtorohanga, Te Awamutu and the rest of the
King Country.
In 1992 she joined Te Puni Kōkiri in
Wellington as a policy analyst with
secondments to the Office of Treaty
Settlements and an Auckland merchant
bank.
She founded Kōwhai Consulting Ltd in
1995, and moved to Waitomo where her
son and daughter were born. Now in their
20s, they work at Pūniu River Care a maraebased
river care group near Te Awamutu
and at Te Nehenehenui Trust in Te Kūiti,
the post settlement governance entity for
Maniapoto.
Kōwhai was a Waikato based group of
consultants advising on Māori business,
environment, education and culture.
“I identified pretty early that I did want to
work in governance,” she says.
“That’s where I felt I was best positioned
in terms of my skill set and my interests.”
What followed were appointments to
various boards and trusts.
“I like to do things related to my tribes and
other things related to governance.”
But even she was surprised when she went
on the Reserve Bank board in 2014 – the
first Māori director. She went on to become
deputy chair before stepping down two years
ago.
“I told them I was not an economist. They
felt they had enough economists around the
table and they wanted someone with more of
a grassroots perspective.
“If you have too many of the same people,
you’re getting too much of the same stuff.”
Simpson loves what she does.
“Everyone knows my space is around iwi
relationships and ensuring being that voice
at the table can help the organisation think
about how to engage well and effectively
and where the mutual gains from having a
mutually beneficial relationship are. There’s
a lot to be gained.
“It doesn’t feel like work. It just feels really
interesting spaces to be. It’s diverse, I get to
go in all kinds of spaces that’s meaningful
for me.”
Like the Waitangi Tribunal. She sits on
the health subcommittee which is part way
through a Health Services and Outcomes
inquiry.
She is also on the Meridian Energy board
as an independent director. Her mother
was affiliated to Ngāi Tahu who work with
Meridian on projects in the South Island
around green energy.
Simpson’s passion for research and
writing resulted 10 years ago in a book on
her Ngāi Tahu great grandfather called The
Last Maopo – the Life and First World War
Sacrifice of Wiremu Maopo.
It was published to mark the centenary of
the start of World War I. Wiremu, who died
in 1929, was unaware his girlfriend Phoebe
had given birth to a daughter. The book
reconnected the Maopo line with Simpson.
Now she is working on her Pākehā
grandmother’s memoirs and later this year
will travel to Scotland – she also has English
heritage - to gather more information.
FROM PAGE 1
She looks surprised when The Business
News ask whether she has any plans to slow
down when she turns 60 in May next year.
No way, she says. She will keep
directorships like Waste Management,
Meridian and Auckland Airport and possibly
pick up more while continuing her work on
the Waitangi Tribunal and the Waitangi
National Trust.
The garden on her small Matangi block
still has a lot of area which needs developing
too.
Already in are a multitude of vegetables
and fruit trees plus there are a couple of
toys – a robot mower and a ride on. There
is also a bicycle which she hopes to get more
use on.
“I enjoy all that sort of stuff, it’s a good
counterbalance to work.
“My focus is really just being there for my
kids, even though they’re in their 20s and
they have their own lives, I want to be as
supportive as I can.”
And with a new coalition government
raising issues around all things Māori which
it says reflects communities’ views, Simpson
feels she is in a position to contribute to
the debate citing her work on the Waitangi
Tribunal.
“It brings the tribunal into sharper focus.
It is the Treaty conversation. We have the
ability to put out reports that influence
decisions.”
That, says Simpson, is where her core
interests lie – improving the lives of Māori.
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Tania Simpson on the five-metre inflatable boat, she recently bought, heading out into Kāwhia
Harbour. Photo: Supplied.
Tim van de Molen
Your MP for Waikato
Backing Waikato Businesses
Tim.vandeMolenMP@parliament.govt.nz
0800 GET TIM (0800 438 846)
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