Nā Hora Kairangi Nicholas tēnei atikara
In an announcement from the Labour Party this week, Mananui Ramsden was named the party’s candidate for the Te Tai Tonga seat.
“Mananui will be a strong advocate for secure jobs, accessible and affordable health care, warm affordable homes, and a government that honours Te Tiriti,” said Māori Campaign Chair Willie Jackson.
Ramsden’s election focuses are “jobs, health, homes and honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
“What you're gonna get with me is … somebody that has grown up knowing what it's like to eat only once a day if that, someone that knows what it’s like to budget just putting diesel into my truck … I've been made redundant in my lifetime four times over,” he said. “What a great opportunity for our people to vote for somebody that actually knows what's up. Kei kōnei ahau.”
Born in Western Australia, Ramsden traveled the globe with his father, Peter Te Rangi Hīroa Ramsden, who worked in mining, alongside his mother Annie and his older sister Mihiata. He described the experience as “grounding”, from developing nations to living in the ngahere in Malaysia. Ramsden was 8 when his whānau returned home to Aotearoa, beginning his pā life.
A descendant of Ngāi Tahu, Rangitāne, Ngāti Raukawa, Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha, Ramsden said his early engagement in tribal governance and community kaupapa was formative.
“My parents were really diligent in grafting myself and my sister to be engaged tribal members,” he said. “For us in Kāi Tahu, our entire kingdom has been run by the kāuta”. That foundation, he said, was built not in lecture halls but on kaupapa, at tangihanga and marae hui, huri noa i te motu.
Leadership runs in his family. Upon returning home, his father took on projects for the Rūnanga, including safekeeping urupā in Koukourārata, restoring waterways, and native planting. His aunt, Dr. Irihapeti Ramsden, was instrumental in embedding cultural safety into nursing standards and regulations. Both became Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
“I humbly stand here as an extension of both of them and my elders from every pā that I’ve been raised in,” Ramsden has since built a career in environmental management and iwi leadership.
“Mai i te uta ki te tai, what you'd be getting from me is a proven leader,” he said. He has worked in freshwater, regional policy, climate adaptation planning, sustainable land and water use, and was the first council-appointed cultural land management advisor. He recently completed his tenure as chair of Te Rūnanga o Koukourārata and has held wider governance roles within Ngāi Tahu, alongside previously standing as a candidate for Environment Canterbury.
“For me it's about honouring Te Tiriti, whether it's our whenua, whether it's our fresh water resources” Although the candidate’s election focusses don’t include the taiao, Ramsden doesn’t rule it out.
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Nō tēnei wiki i puta te pānui a Te Rōpū Reipa, kua whakaingoatia a Mananui Ramsden hei kaitono hou mō te tūru o Te Tai Tonga.
“Mananui will be a strong advocate for secure jobs, accessible and affordable health care, warm affordable homes, and a government that honours Te Tiriti,” e ai ki te Heamana kōkirikiri Māori a Willie Jackson.
Ko ngā aronga matua mō Ramsden, ko ngā “jobs, health, homes and honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
“What you're gonna get with me is … somebody that has grown up knowing what it's like to eat only once a day if that, someone that knows what it’s like to budget just putting diesel into my truck … I've been made redundant in my lifetime four times over,” i kī ia. “What a great opportunity for our people to vote for somebody that actually knows what's up. Kei Kōnei ahau.”
I whanau mai a Ramsden i Ahitereiria, ā, i haere ia ki te ao whānui me tōna pāpā, a Peter Te Rangi Hīroa Ramsden, i te ahumahi maina. I kī a Ramsden, he wheako “grounding” te noho ki ngā whenua whakawhanake me te ngahere o Malaysia. E 8 ōnā tau i te wā i hoki mai te whānau Ramsden ki Aotearoa, ā, i tīmata tōna oranga ki te pā.
“My parents were really diligent on grafting myself and my sister to be engaged tribal members,” Hei tā Ramsden “For us in Kāi Tahu, our entire kingdom has been run by the kauta.” I kī ia, ehara tēnei tūāpapa i hanga ki ngā whare wānanga, engari ki ngā kaupapa, ki ngā tangihanga, me ngā hui kē, huri noa i te motu.
He uri nō Ngāi Tahu, Rangitāne, Ngāti Raukawa, Kāti Māmoe me Waitaha, he mea whakatipu ki a ia te mahi whakahaere hapū me ngā kaupapa hapori.
He ara rangatira i roto i tōna whānau. I tōna hoki mai, i whai pūkenga tōna pāpā mō ngā kaupapa a te Rūnanga, tae atu ki te tiaki urupā i Koukourārata, te whakahou i ngā awa, me te whakatō ngahere taketake. I āwhina hoki tōna Hākui a Dr Irihapeti Ramsden, ki te whakauru i te haumaru ahurea ki roto i ngā ture me ngā paerewa tiaki tapuhi. I riro mā rāua ngā Mema o Te Kāhui Tohu Hiranga.
Ko tā Ramsden “I humbly stand here as an extension of both of them and my elders from every pā that I’ve been raised in”. Kua whai pūkenga a Ramsden i te mahi tiaki taiao me te ārahi iwi.
“Mai i te uta ki te tai, what you'd be getting from me is a proven leader,” i kī ia. Kua mahi ia i te wai māori, ngā tikanga ā-rohe, te whakamahere āhuarangi, te whakamahi whenua me te wai toitū. Kua oti i a ia te noho hei Heamana o Te Rūnanga o Koukourārata, ā, kua whai tūranga ia i roto i Ngāi Tahu, ā, kua tū ia hei kaitono mō Environment Canterbury.
“For me it's about honouring Te Tiriti, whether it's our whenua, whether it's our fresh water resources,” ahakoa kāore ōna aronga e aro ana ki te taiao, kaore ia e aukatihia.