Eruera Keepa (Te Arawa, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Maniapoto)

Keepa Keepa (Te Arawa, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Maniapoto) pleaded guilty in the Tauranga District court to common assault and breaching a protection order. The Police report said he grabbed [her] by the neck. Themes: Mokopuna, Pa Harakeke, te tapu o te wahine. He runs Hīkina Consultancy trading as Hīkina Ltd from Rotorua. We like to talk about economies, no dollar can buy integrity or character. Wāhine Māori are projected to make up 22% of all working age women by 2043 and are already contributing $12.5billion to the economy when unpaid work is accounted for. As outlined in Te Ōhanga Māori 2023: The Māori Economy (MBIE & BERL, 2023) a third of wāhine-Māori are self-employed and there is rising influence in wāhine Māori taking up leadership roles in stewarding the Māori dollar across the $126b Asset Base in Māori Authorities, Fisheries, Forestry, Rūnanga-entities, professional services, making financial decisions on behalf of thousands of Māori.

Amongst those many women impacted, as well as children, was one of our leading Māori artists and Wāhine Māori entrepreneurs, supporter of emerging rangatahi Māori rising as sector leaders across the Arts - ringatoi, singers, musicians, creatives - leaders across Te Ao Māori, through the M9 kaupapa she leads and curates that gather quarterly at the Aotea Centre reaching tens of thousands of Māori, of Māori sector leaders, of wāhine Māori.

Yet while our wāhine Māori are rising as leaders - every three days in this country, a

wahine or a child is hospitalised due to domestic abuse. Thirty percent are rangatahi.

Aotearoa New Zealand has the highest rate of intimate partner violence (IPV) against

women in the OECD world. According to the New Zealand Family Violence Study

(Fanslow et al, 2023), two thirds of our wāhine Māori population have experienced it

in their lifetime. That’s around 300,000 souls experiencing patunga, imagine faces,

necks, choking, bruising to tinana and wairua - mothers, aunties, cousins, friends –

often with their children watching. Horrific. Heartbreaking. Convictions often don’t

take place because it takes a lot of courage and support to report it, to voice it. While

wāhine Māori are working, serving, succeeding – based on the stats above, there is

likely a lot of crossover of those leading, as well as those impacted – and we are all

watching.