June - July 2024 Newsletter Pānui

June - July 2024 Newsletter Pānui

Kia ora, welcome to our latest newsletter.

This pānui shares an update on OraTaiao activities over the last two months.

During Matariki, OraTaiao had our first ever noho at Te Noho Kotahitanga marae, where we held our biannual strategy planning for 2024 - 2026. This auspicious occasion provided us with the perfect opportunity to reflect, recharge, and focus our efforts on maximising our impact for climate and community healing. Many thanks to the members and executive who made it a fruitful and enjoyable noho. 

Image: Noho marae participants at Sanctuary Mahi Whenua Community Garden 

OraTaiao will be finalising our strategy in the coming weeks, and we look forward to sharing an invigorated plan with you.  

Ngā mihi nui,

Dermot & Summer,

Co-convenors, OraTaiao: NZ Climate & Health Council

 

Celebrating our first OraTaiao Noho Marae

Image: Noho marae participants taken Sunday 30 June by Danielle Newton.

We held our first-ever OraTaiao noho marae last month at Te Noho Kotahitanga marae. Sharing such sacred space kanohi ki te kanohi during Matariki and te tau hou Māori, the Māori new year, was very special. 

The wānanga provided an opportunity for whakawhanaungatanga, nurturing our connections and shared understanding of the work of OraTaiao and potential pathways forward. The weekend was centered on hauoratanga, holistic well-being, in recognition of our shared purpose of climate healing, people healing. 

We are hugely grateful to those who contributed their energy and insight to our collective kaupapa. We plan to run this strategy wānanga biannually, rotating around the regions.

You can watch some of the highlights of our noho marae here.

You can also listen to our new OraTaiao waiata written by Exec member Corbin Whanga.

“Te Oranga Taiao”

Words:

Te Oranga – o tō tātou taiao.
Mā tenei take – ka herea tātou.
Whiria – te kotahitanga,
Mā te oranga – o tō tātou taiao.

Translation:

Health (wellbeing/survival) – of our environment (including tāngata).
Through this cause – we are bound together.
(Let us) Weave – unity,
For the health – of our environment.

Mihi
Firstly, I want to mihi to all of our members and exec, its an honour to have been able to work on this waiata for our cause and to have OraTaiao receive it so warmly under the tapu of our noho marae at Te Noho Kotahitanga in June. 

This waiata speaks to our collective purpose that brings us together. It’s intended to acknowledge that unity is both required by us and rewarded to us through our embrace of health and the environment. To me, this idea has been embodied by everyone who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting through OraTaiao. We all connect under this banner as volunteers because we recognise the value of the collective and how our shared energies can sustain and inspire.

This waiata is best sung loud, as a group, and accompanied by a guitar. But all I had for the recording was a ukulele and GarageBand to duplicate voices, so hopefully this will do for now! Sing along, learn the waiata, and when we next have a chance to connect in person, we can sing it together. We can all use this waiata in whatever capacity we feel is right.

Mauri ora koutou!
Corbin

Join our next strategy session

We invite our members to join us on August 20th at 7.00 pm to discuss our refreshed strategy. You will receive an invitation and further information shortly. 

Reigniting regional working groups

Our recent noho marae and feedback from our membership survey highlighted the value of meeting face-to-face to strengthen member relationships and support shared action locally. We are reactivating regional working groups to enable this. Our coordinator will be contacting and connecting those who expressed interest in joining a regional group in our recent membership survey. Get in touch if you are keen to volunteer as the liaison for your region.

Please email the key contact below if you are interested in participating in OraTaiao meet-ups in the following regions:

Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland: Jan Raymond janmraymond@gmail.com

Waitaha, Canterbury / Ōtautahi, Christchurch: Dermot Coffey [email protected]

Te Papaioea, Palmerston North & Manawatū, Whanganui: Summer Wright [email protected]

Te Whanganui a Tara, Wellington: Suzi Hume [email protected]

Other working groups you can join:

Our coordinator will be getting in touch with everyone who expressed an interest in joining a working group in our recent membership survey. If you didn't get a chance to fill out our survey and are interested in any of the following working groups, please email Dani here.

  • Māori caucus
  • Te Tiriti rōpū
  • Student caucus
  • Kai and food systems working group
  • Transport working group
  • A working group for my region
  • A working group for my profession

Submissions

Over the past few months OraTaiao has made submissions to the Climate Change Commission on the review of the 2050 emissions reduction target and including international shipping and aviation in the 2050 target. 

We also wrote a submission on the Finance and Expenditure Committee's Inquiry into climate adaptation which you can read here

Webinar: Palestine, Health Workers, Climate, & Interconnected Liberation

Last month we held an online kōrero with Dr. Ruba Harfeil, Dr. Donna Cormack, and Dr. Arama Rata to discuss Palestine, health workers, climate, and interconnected liberation. You can watch the recorded webinar here.

Request for expert feedback on a new measure of climate anxiety

Tomás Gago, Dr. Rebecca Sargisson, and Prof. Taciano Milfont from the University of Waikato are working on a new self-report measure for assessing climate anxiety. They invite people working in psychology and mental health to participate in a short online survey, and a follow-up interview if they wish. If you would like to participate in the survey, click this link

Art by Madeleine Jubilee Saito from All We Can Save

Thank you for reading, and for being on the haerenga with us, for the healing of tāngata, whenua and taiao. Standing for climate justice, for health, for the sacred. We persist, evolve, and we don't do it alone. Connected by all that we love. Holding on to our humanity. 

We leave you with a beautiful reminder from Mama Nature holding a loving mirror to our humanness, by Naima Penniman.

This newsletter was written by Danielle Newton.

OraTaiao: New Zealand Climate and Health Council 

OraTaiao