Kaupeka Ki Runga Kaupeka Ki Raro Kui Kui Whiti Whiti Ora E!

He uri o Ngā Iwi o Mōkai Pātea – Ngāti Whitikaupeka, Ngāti Hauiti, Ngāti Tamakōpiri and Ngāi Te Ohuake. Ko Moawhango te kainga tuturu.

Born and bred in Moawhango, Piki Te Ora has spent all 59 years of her life in the rohe, where whānau, hapū and Iwi have played a major role in her life.

Concepts of whanaungatanga, kaitiakitanga and manaaki have been attributes and values that her father instilled into all of his eight kids with the premise that life is about what you can you do for others and learning how to give back as opposed to the world “revolving around you”!

With that kaupapa at heart, Piki Te Ora has been on the Moawhango marae committee since she was a teenager, a role that she has embraced and found one of her strengths in being able to communicate with whanau that are scattered all around the world.

Having a strong work ethic has seen her do many types of mahi ranging from 10 years working in the Taihape Telephone Exchange, a cook and “rousie” in shearing sheds, working in hospitality as a Bar tender and managing her late sister’s hotel in Waiouru. In this space, she says that regardless of rank “everyone was treated the same”, from Privates to Officers.

That touch has served Piki Te Ora well in governance roles. From 2000 to 2013 she was on the Otaihape Māori Komiti, playing a role in its subsequent transformation into Mōkai Pātea Services in 2014. Piki Te Ora is the Pou Whakahaere of Mōkai Pātea Services, and continues to help whanau, hapu and Iwi in this Iwi mandated, health, social service, education and hapu development organisation. 2019 was another milestone in her working career having run for and successful in being elected as a Northern Ward Councillor for the Rangitikei District Council. She is now sitting in her second triennium as the inaugural Tiikeitia Ki Uta Maori Ward.

She acknowledges that her biggest achievement in life is being a mother to her only child, Johnson Tiopira I Roto I Te Hau Hiroa, and being now a grandmother to her 3 ½ year old mokopuna Harvey Taonui Hiroa.  Piki Te Ora acknowledges all of the people who have influenced and nurtured her in life, with her whanau, hapu and Iwi sitting right up the front of this group.

She says she feels lucky to have been nominated to be a Mōkai Pātea negotiator, and that she certainly doesn’t “know everything”, but she reckons the things she does know may be of use to her people.