May 21, 2020

Pā life on the farm

Olive Hawira teaches our farming cadets the life skills they’ll need to live independently on a farm.

To the rangatahi who live at the whare at Te Pā Station for the first year of their Awhiwhenua farming cadetship, Olive Hawira is known simply as 'Whaea'.


It’s not surprising they see Olive as a mother figure – it’s her role to teach each group of six cadets how to manage a whare when they go out to work on farms.


By the end of the year, Olive will have taught them to cook, to clean and all the other life skills they’ll need to live by themselves in the second year of their cadetship.


Working in early childhood for more than 40 years showed Olive the need to develop good relationships with the cadets.



"Making the connection with them and realising that each of them has their own personalities and strengths is key to enhancing their life skills," she says.



"Yes, I’m their whaea when they are in this whare, but it is my job to ensure they are capable of living independently next year."


Olive can remember a time when farms were the pā for many whānau.

I was raised on a farm in

the Parapara, so for my

whānau it was our pā.

“It was the place we’d come together at in good and bad times – for Christmas, tangi, birthdays and weddings. A place where everyone pulled their weight and got rewarded.

"And that’s a tikanga I try to pass on in my work with rangatahi on this whenua and in this whare."

Olive's whakapapa connects her to every part of the whenua.

"Dad’s Mum was from Ngāti Rangi and Ngā Wairiki and his Dad was from Ngāti Rangi also. My Mum was from Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Patutokotoko and Ngāti Tū."

An Awhi shareholder herself, Olive would like to see more shareholders and beneficiaries taking advantage of the Awhiwhenua programme.

She’d especially like to see more wāhine cadets, and says some of the programme’s best cadets have been wāhine.