Forty Years of Service by Master Carver & Kaumātua Rei Mihaere Honoured with Hamilton Civic Award
Hamilton City Council has recognised master carver, cultural leader, and long-serving community advocate Rei Mihaere with a prestigious Hamilton Kirikiriroa Civic Award, acknowledging more than forty years of service to whānau, schools, marae, and the wider community.
“To be honest, I am still in shock about it. It’s a humbling experience, as I wasn’t expecting it,” said Rei Mihaere. “I have always believed that when we reconnect our tamariki to their culture, their whakapapa, and their own sense of worth, they stand taller. It has been my privilege to walk alongside them, their whānau, and our community. This award belongs to all of us who believe in lifting our young people and helping them thrive.”
The revered whakairo expert and Kaumātua for both Te Kōhao Health and Kirikiriroa Marae, Rei has dedicated his life to strengthening cultural identity, supporting disenfranchised whānau, and reconnecting tamariki and rangatahi with te ao Māori. His impact spans generations and reaches deep into the cultural fabric of Kirikiriroa.
“We absolutely applaud Rei for being recognised with this Civic Award. His contribution to this city, and to almost every community within Kirikiriroa, has been immense,” said Lady Tureiti Moxon, Managing Director of Te Kōhao Health. “Through his carving programmes, cultural leadership, and unwavering service, he has uplifted whānau for generations. It couldn’t have happened to a better person, and we are thrilled that Hamilton City Council has honoured him in this way.”
Likewise, one of his three nominators, artist Hakahaka Tāne, describes Rei as “a taonga to our community and most deserving of the 2025 Civic Recognition Award,” highlighting the profound cultural value of his lifelong dedication.
Through the Tipuaki Programme, recently featured on SevenSharp, first established at Hillcrest Primary School and now expanded to fourteen schools in the Hillcrest Rōpū, Rei has created alternative educational pathways for young people, particularly those for whom mainstream schooling has not met their needs.
These carving programmes foster cultural identity, aroha, awhi, confidence, and intergenerational pride, transforming lives across the Waikato. Schools involved in Tipuaki report improved attendance, engagement, and academic outcomes for participating tamariki.
“Rei’s Tipuaki Programme has changed outcomes for tamariki across our schools, improving attendance, restoring confidence, and giving them a sense of achievement and cultural pride. His impact is real, measurable, and profound. He is truly deserving of this recognition,” said Project Manager Andrew Roche, another nominator backing the Kaumātua.
Rei has also championed gender equity in traditional arts, creating opportunities for wāhine and tāhine to participate in whakairo through the use of compressed fibre board. By challenging historic boundaries and fostering inclusivity, he is reshaping cultural participation and paving the way for a more equitable community.
Board governor Denise Kingi, also in the trio of nominators, said: “Rei’s leadership comes from deep cultural wisdom and a lifetime of service. He empowers tamariki and whānau with gentleness, humility, and unwavering dedication. His work has healed, inspired, and transformed our community for more than 40 years.”
The Hamilton Mayor noted in the official letter that Rei’s leadership has “enriched the wider life of our city and strengthened Hamilton’s cultural vibrancy.”
Rei will receive his Civic Award alongside 16 other honourees at the Civic Awards Ceremony on Monday, 17 November 2025, at the Central Court Pavilion, Hamilton Gardens, from 3.30pm to 6.00pm.
Kirikiriroa Leg of Nationwide ‘Hīkoi for Our Health’ Kicks Off Today
Under the morning skies of Kirikiriroa, crowds are expected to gather as part of the Hīkoi for Our Health nationwide movement calling for urgent government action to fix Aotearoa’s broken health system.
Led by Lady Tureiti Moxon, Managing Director of Te Kōhao Health, today’s hīkoi will travel at 10.00am from Hamilton Lake Playground to Waikato Hospital, carrying the Buller Declaration on the State of the New Zealand Health System, now signed by more than 100,000 New Zealanders.
The Declaration, which began in Buller on the West Coast in 2024, calls for decisive government action to address the health crisis affecting rural, Māori, and low-income whānau.
It urges immediate investment in training, recruiting, and retaining nurses, doctors, midwives, and allied health workers, and calls on the Crown to meet its obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
“Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a blueprint for partnership and accountability,” said Lady Tureiti Moxon.
“When the Crown makes decisions about Māori health without Māori, that is not partnership. We need structural change. This hīkoi is about calling the Government to honour Te Tiriti and build a system designed with, by, and for our people.”
Malcolm Mulholland, Chair of Patient Voice Aotearoa and national hīkoi organiser, said the message is being echoed in every community along the route.
“New Zealanders are united in saying our health system is in crisis,” he said.
“We’re walking for the people behind the statistics — those waiting in corridors, those turned away, and the health workers holding the system together. This hīkoi is our call to those in power: fix it now, before more lives are lost.”
The Hīkoi for Our Health began in Westport on 1 November, retracing the path of the original Buller march that sparked this national movement. It has now been through the South Island and up the North Island, and will reach Parliament in Pōneke Wellington at 12.00pm on Monday 18 November, where thousands are expected to gather in solidarity.
Today in Kirikiriroa, the message was one of unity, mana motuhake, and hope for a system that values people over bureaucracy, and equity over excuses.
“We walk not just for ourselves, but for our tamariki and mokopuna,” said Lady Tureiti. “For our hauora. For our future.”
Event Details
Friday 14 November 2025
10.00am – From Hamilton Lake Playground to Waikato Hospital
Lady Tureiti Moxon Files Urgent Human Rights Complaint to UN over Systemic Discrimination in Aotearoa New Zealand
Today, in an unprecedented move, Lady Tureiti Moxon has filed a comprehensive 42-page “urgent action/early warning complaint,” supported by 185 footnotes, with the United Nations, seeking urgent intervention in Aotearoa New Zealand under the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
She has requested the opportunity to meet with the five-member working group responsible for the Early Warning and Urgent Action procedure in Geneva, before or during the Committee’s upcoming 116th session, scheduled from 17 November to 5 December 2025, when Aotearoa New Zealand is due for review.
Lady Tureiti, a Māori leader of Ngāti Pāhauwera, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa, and Kāi Tahu descent, and Chair of the National Urban Māori Authority, has been advocating for Māori health and rights for over three decades.
“What has been outlined in this complaint demonstrates serious violations of the Convention that require urgent attention,” she said. “It raises serious questions in relation to the standing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi within the constitutional arrangements in Aotearoa New Zealand.”
The lengthy submission presents extensive evidence showing that, since late 2023, a series of Coalition Government actions have reversed decades of progress towards fulfilling Aotearoa New Zealand’s obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has issued only one other specific decision under its urgent action and early warning procedure for Aotearoa New Zealand, in March 2005, concerning the New Zealand Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004. The Committee concluded that the legislation appeared to discriminate against Māori in exercising their rights to own or possess ancestral lands and resources.
“The evidence shows a significant and persistent pattern of political racial discrimination against iwi Māori that removes the rights of Māori to live as Māori in their own land. This has been a deliberate and intentional strategy to remove all references to Te Tiriti o Waitangi in legislation, policies, and procedures,” Lady Tureiti said.
Her submission documents repeated instances of unconstitutional overreach by the Coalition Government, including:
Extensive use of urgency to bypass public participation
Pursuing legislation against overwhelming public opposition
Undermining the separation of powers by overriding judicial decisions recognising Māori rights
Introducing bills just before Waitangi Tribunal hearings to deprive it of jurisdiction
Removing the requirement for schools to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi from legislation after the select committee process had already been completed
Granting Ministers powers to override laws with little transparency
Excluding opposition Māori politicians from Parliament for performing a traditional haka
“These actions represent a pattern of serious breaches of human rights and international obligations. Urgent action from the UN Committee is necessary to address the systemic discrimination and ongoing harm experienced by Māori communities across Aotearoa New Zealand,” Lady Tureiti said. “It clearly highlights hostile policies and grave statements by political leaders that intentionally target Māori, causing harm, trauma, and inequity.”
Her evidence illustrates how the Coalition Government’s regressive actions since 2023 have undone fifty years of rebalancing in areas including land, language, children and youth, justice, health, science, and self-determination.
Copies of the complaint have also been sent to Crown Law, the Human Rights Commission (including the Race Relations Commissioner), the Ombudsman, the Auditor-General, Te Tari Whakatau – the Office of Treaty Settlements and Takutai Moana, and the Public Service Commission.