A week or so ago, I posted some comments which expressed a great deal of glee at the recognition which Ngati Whatua had received at a national awards ceremony for health innovations.  I'd singled out Jane Sherard and Annette Lyndsay as the titular leaders of Ngati Whatua Nga Rima o Kaipara and Pro-Care North Limited but in fact, it is fitting to also recognise the tremendous work which all of the other people did.  Thus, Yo's message of congratulations is absolutely spot on because she does just that - viz - she recognises everyone else and clearly notes that it was a team effort. 

So to add to that, let me be clear that the project was spearheaded by Cherie Povey who worked with the Marae Arataki over a span of four years - and as you can see from the pictures I've uploaded here, all of the whanau were responsible for the success of this project. As Jane said to me, she prefers to lead from behind and in her words:

"each wahine blossomed in their own right and managed the Toku Oranga Pai programmes on their marae. Each showed their commitment in terms of talking about their work at the Innov08 Conference workshops with self-esteem, ease and naturalness. The display was designed by them in Auckland, contacts were made to Ngati Whatua weavers in Wellington Polytechnic and the EXPO display received good reviews and feedback."

So the true accollades must go to the Marae Arataki and to the whanau themselves for the success of the programmes on all their marae.  They're a winning team.

Ka kite

Jens