Minister for Maori Development and Associate Minister for Economic Development Te Ururoa Flavell has praised recent initiatives by Waikato-Tainui that benefit its people and wider Waikato region.

He recently visited the Waikato River Festival, the launch of a new driver's licence grant and meeting with graduands of the Waikato Beekeepers Training Collective.

Government-funded agency Te Puni Kokiri has partnered with Waikato-Tainui on all of the projects, working with Tainui Waka Tourism, Trust Waikato, Te Wananga o Aotearoa, NZ Tourism and Aotearoa Experience to deliver the Waikato River Festival He Piko He Taniwha.

The Waikato River Festival aims to establish and develop a month long programme to showcase and acknowledge the tupuna awa and its tributaries as a national ‘taonga'.

Other initiatives include partnering with NZTA and Mercury to support the launch of Kia Haere Tu a tribal development initiative to support Waikato-Tainui beneficiaries to obtain their driver's licences and undertake a defensive driving course. It is hoped this will lead to outcomes that will better prepare tribal members for employment opportunities, and in the long term contribute to safer roads.

Te Puni Kokiri have also worked with the Waikato River Trust and Whai Manawa Limited to support the Waikato Maori Beekeepers Collective to establish its Beekeeper Training programme aimed at Maori landowners.

A year on, the collective will graduate its inaugural intake with their Level 2 Apiculture certificate.

Te Ururoa describes each initiative as realising a different future for Waikato-Tainui – a transformation demonstrating their belief that something better was possible not only for their beneficiaries, but also the wider region.

'Doing what we have always done will not get us to our destination of achieving our aspirations. The tribe's collective courage and appetite to shift thinking to overcome any constraints to progress contributes to a powerful platform from which to grow collectively.”