All smiles after Ahuwhenua trifecta

There was great jubilation when Kingi Smiler, the chair of Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani Incorporation (WMI), was presented with the trophy by the Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka at a gala dinner held in Hamilton recently. For Smiler it was a special moment as he has connections to the past two winners (for sheep and beef and horticulture) of this prestigious trophy.

The function was attended by 860 people, which included the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Nicola Willis, the Māori King along with diplomats from the United Kingdom, Ireland, the European Union and Canada. There were representatives of central and local government, agribusiness leaders, sponsors of the awards, previous winners and whānau from all the finalists.

WMI consists of 12 dairy units across 4300ha, plus three dairy support units. But it entered just one of these in the competition - Farm 4 and this was the winning farm. The property has a milking platform of 300ha, milking 980 cows and producing 416,000 kgMS. All up, WMI produce about five million kilograms of milk-solids from their 12,000 cow herd and are the largest supplier to milk processor Miraka Ltd.

The other finalist in the competition was Whakatohea Māori Board whose farm is near the Eastern Bay of Plenty township of Opotiki.

Tama Potaka described the Ahuwhenua Trophy as the most prestigious award in Māori farming that acknowledges and celebrates business excellence in NZ’s important pastoral and horticultural sectors. He says for Māori, the award is a demonstration of success and pride, but also a demonstration of identity which is inextricably linked into land, seas, forests mountains and rivers.

“What we saw at the awards night was an expression of identity,” he says.

Smiler says that after winning the competition he was both elated and relieved and added it was a tough competition being up against Whakatohera. He says he takes a lot of pride out of winning the award because it shows the reward for all at WMI.

“Personally I like the challenge which requires us to work hard and it’s really good that our teams work together well and have managed to achieve this award,” he says.

For Finance Minister Nicola Willis, it was her first experience of attending the awards evening and she loved it, saying it was wonderful to see the dairy industry celebrated in this way. She says she was particularly impressed with the finalists in the Young Māori Farmer competition.

“The Māori economy is huge and has been growing very fast and is of massive potential. It’s grown from $16 billion to $70 billion in only 20 years and is making a huge difference to the whole of the economy of the country,” she says.

Young Māori Farmer Winner

As part of the gala dinner the winner of the Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer for dairy was also announced.

Spontaneous haka and waiata greeted the news that 29 yearold Ben Purua, a farm manager at Waimakariri Lands Ltd, near Tirau was the 2024 winner. This the second time he has entered the competition, but missed out three years ago.

The announcement was made by Dr Charlotte Severne, the Māori Trustee and chief executive of Te Tumu Paeroa. As well as presenting Ben Purua with the trophy she also gave each of the three finalists a $7,500 scholarship to be used to help them develop their careers. The other two finalists were Hannah Speakman and Shayden Gardiner.