Region revealed as a powerhouse in te reo Māori

Rongowhakaata Iwi Trust kaihautu Teina Moetara.
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
Most people affiliated to iwi in Tairāwhiti are under 30 and each iwi is continually growing in population, new data shows.
The information, released by Te Kāhui Raraunga on the TeWhata website, was collected in the 2023 Census and gives a deeper understanding and look at statistics of iwi throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.
In the East Coast, iwi data is available for Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Rongowhakaata, Te Aitanga ā Hauiti, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongomaiwahine (Te Māhia) — and the Tūranganui a Kiwa collective, which is made up of Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Rongowhakaata, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki and other unnamed iwi.
Māori could elect only up to five iwi affiliations in previous censuses. In the 2023 Census, it was increased to 16.
Ngāti Porou has risen to the second-largest iwi with 102,480 members and overall there are now 978,246 Māori across the motu.
Across all iwi, the number of members has increased.
Ngāi Tāmanuhiri has grown by 109.9% since 2013 to have 3609 people affiliated.
Rongowhakaata has 9201 people affiliated with an overall increase of 83.4% since 2013.
Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki has 10,593 — an increase of 69.3% since the 2013 census.
Te Aitanga ā hauiti is now 4866 strong with a median age of 25.5.
Rongomawahine (Te Māhia) has increased by 79.1% since 2013 to have 8007 people.
Nationally, 46.5% of Māori were under 25. One in five New Zealanders is Māori.
Across the region’s iwi, most descendants are below the age of 30 and the median age for each iwi is no older than 28.
Gisborne is the region with the highest proportion (28.5%) of iwi members who can hold a conversation in Māori. This is higher than the national percentage of 18.6%.
Broken down into iwi, 40.3% of Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, 25.7% of Ngāti Porou, 33.5% of Rongomawahine (Te Māhia), 32.4% of Rongowhakaata, 42.6% of Te Aitanga ā Hauiti, 32.6% of Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, and 31.6% of Tūranganui a Kiwa collective could hold a conversation in te reo Māori.
The national average of Māori who hold a tertiary degree is 14% with the iwi of Gisborne higher than that, with 14.8% of Ngāti Porou, 23.9% of Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, 23.5% of Rongowhakaata, 21.1% of Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, 23.6% of Te Aitanga ā Hauiti, 20.6% Rongomawahine (Te Māhia) and 21.2% of the Tūranganui a Kiwa Collective holding a tertiary degree or higher.
Rongowhakaata Iwi Trust kaihautu Teina Moetara said the higher rates of education and growing population of Rongowhakaata were exciting for the region and showed the iwi were changing the script from poverty to vitality.
“What I can see in the numbers is that we are an iwi that has a high level of education, high rates of employment, working strongly across the education, health and social services sectors,” Moetara said.
The other significant thing was the growth of rangatahi, he said.
Tūranganui-a-Kiwa now holds the highest proportion of residents of Māori descent in the country and 53.4% of Rongowhakaata were under 30 in 2023.
“Power in our region is going to shift towards our rangatahi, and most of our rangatahi are reo speakers, they’ve grown up through kura kaupapa. It is this generation who will be leading and driving the Māori economy into the future,” he said.
“Gisborne is not somewhere you just come to retire. We are a growing and thriving community which will be led forward by Māori.
“The new data-recording approaches introduced in the 2023 Census empower us with greater access and ownership over our own story. This not only strengthens our ability to tell our story, but also provides us with the mandate to lead meaningful change across our region.
“We have been working hard to grow people’s connection to their iwi and the data released … reflects this. Connection to our place, our taiao, our relationship with our tūranga and Tairāwhiti people and our connection back to our identity through the arts.”
Matai O’Connor (Ngāti Porou) has been a journalist for five years and kaupapa Māori reporter at the Gisborne Herald for two years.