The Labour Party has announced former M\u0101ori journalist Kingi Kiriona as their candidate to contest the Hauraki-Waikato seat held by Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke in this year\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opportunity to stand for the Labour Party, and represent the people of Hauraki-Waikato, is a huge honour,\u201d Kiriona said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am here because of the aroha and support of leaders and wh\u0101nau throughout the rohe over many years. I look forward to giving back in service to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement said he met with Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po and received her blessing to stand.<\/p>\n
Kiriona is a respected leader in te ao M\u0101ori with a background in cultural development in education, health, broadcasting and infrastructure. He is the founder of M\u0101ori education provider, TupuOra.<\/p>\n
A former Te Karere journalist, he is the deputy chairman of Te M\u0101ngai P\u0101ho, the M\u0101ori broadcasting funding agency, and has previously served three terms on Whakaata M\u0101ori\u2019s board.<\/p>\n
He is a prominent figure in M\u0101ori language revitalisation and the leader of the Waikato-based kapa haka group, Te Iti Kahurangi. The group is performing today at the Tainui regional kapa haka competition in Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Kiriona credits his ability to lead and serve M\u0101ori and the wider public to his experiences as a father, a graduate of K\u014dhanga Reo and Te Panekiretanga \u2013 a language academy of te reo M\u0101ori excellence \u2013 and as a tutor of Te Iti Kahurangi.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout my journey, I have been driven by the power of nurturing potential, and the importance of empowering people, particularly rangatahi, to in turn uplift others. This is reflected in my work with my own kapahaka, Te Iti Kahurangi, which has given me a family, a home, and experiences to stand comfortably on the performance stage and the world stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kiriona is known for using kapa haka as a platform to highlight and respond to topical issues, most notably in 2015 at Te Matatini when the group performed a haka that criticised Whakaata M\u0101ori\u2019s content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Labour Party has announced former M\u0101ori journalist Kingi Kiriona as their candidate to contest the Hauraki-Waikato seat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4432,111,43,139,69,135,199881,10872],"class_list":{"0":"post-385289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-maori-issues","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-te-ao-haka","15":"tag-torangapu"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}