Our Facilitators
We have a pool of talented individuals who are passionate about our people, our stories and our culture. Our facilitators will host a range of developmental workshops with a particular focus on working with organisations and individuals to develop their cultural capability.
Anahera Nin
Resource Management Advisor
Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira
Ko Anahera ahau, i tipu ake au ki Tuhikaramea ki te riu o Waikato. Ki Amerika au ako ai ki te whare wānanga, nā, i tenei wā tonu kei Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira au e mahi ana.
Anahera is currently working in our Treaty & Strategic Relationships Team in the wider Ahurea Taiao space as a Senior Policy & Engagement Advisor. Her scope of mahi includes engagement, treaty settlement matters, resource management and ArcGIS mapping on the side. She is also actively involved in her own kāinga matters back in Tauranga Moana for Ngāti Pūkenga and has had extensive experience in representing Aotearoa in several interests, most recently at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Conference in 2021.
Anahera is passionate about her iwi and increasing tika treaty partnership and engagement throughout the mōtu.
Bianca Elkington
General Manager, Education & Employment Services
Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira
Bianca's qualifications, expertise, passion and commitment to Māori education success provide the drive needed to challenge the status quo. Uri of Ngāti Toa, Bianca is passionate about the innovation of education and how indigenous ways of doing can be used to create models and methods of teaching and learning. Bianca began her career with Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira in 2015 where she was brought on to support tauira to achieve success in education. The earliest stages of her mahi with the Rūnanga gave her the opportunity to test her thinking and ideas that were initially developed during her study in the masters programme at Victoria University. Te Puna Mātauranga provides the fruits of that thinking. Bianca now leads the Education and Employment Group at Te Runanga o Toarangatira as General Manager, supporting the ongoing development of iwi and the community.
Jennie Smeaton
Chief Operating Officer
Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira
Jennie has held executive leadership positions in the public and iwi sectors specialising in Māori Development. She has a background in communications and environmental management and has held local and regional positions on governance boards and committees focussed in the environmental, fisheries and local government space.
He uri a Jennie no Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama. I tipu mai ia ki te pā harakeke o Takapūwāhia ki Porirua.
Taku Parai
Pou Tikanga
Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira
Born and raised in Takapūwāhia and have never left for one minute. Raised in a big whanau, in a house of 18 people (siblings, parents & grandparents).
I believe I had the most incredible upbringing one could ask for - the bush was my adventure park, the Harbour was my buffet table, the streams were my science labs. Takapūwāhia Marae was/is who I am. I loved every minute growing up on Ngati Toa street, attending Ngāti Toa School and Mana College, then on to Victoria University. At a very young age I was taught by my kaumatua the customs and traditions of Ngāti Toa. I am most passionate about serving our people, and ensuring our kōrero tukuiho are carried through the generations to come.