Keeping the kai cooking and the hot water flowing

Kiekie marae in Waipiro Bay is typical of many Ngati Porou marae where power and insurance are two of their biggest costs.

Written by: Kaapua Smith

Supporting our marae to keep the kai cooking and the hot water flowing, while helping to lower the cost of electricity in our homes, is the inspiration behind an innovative partnership between Te Runanganui o Ngāti Porou and Contact Energy.

Nati Power, the brain child of Toitu Ngati Porou, draws on our collective buying power to give those who sign up a 22% discount* on their monthly power bill, while also raising money to power up the 50 marae of Ngāti Porou. The initiative, which comes to an end in less than a month, has raised almost $8000 for our marae since it was first launched in June.

All money raised through Nati Power will go directly towards powering up the heart of our communities, the marae of Ngati Porou.

Wiki Gilvray, Trustee and Treasurer of Kiekie marae in Waipiro Bay says that their annual marae power costs are between $2,000 to $3,000 per year and that any kaupapa which helps to raise money towards lower the power bill is a good thing.

“Power, and insurance are two of our biggest costs,” said Wiki Gilvray, Kiekie marae Trustee/Treasurer.

“It’s always a balancing act, but we are lucky at Kiekie marae, we’ve been able to hold wananga, we’ve received grants, and of course koha - which has helped us cover the bills. Of course, if we could reduce the money that we spend on power, then that would be great, and we could look to allocate that amount of putea to other things that our marae needs.”

“For us, the next big focus after the power bill is insurance, so I think this initiative is a very good idea.”

Watch a recent episode of Mataora here where Nati Power was the focus of the entire progamme.

We now have less than a month to go before the promotion ends for this year, with the final amount raised through Nati Power due to be presented by Contact at Pa Wars on the 3rd of January 2015.

We are encouraging all Ngāti Porou individuals, businesses and whanau, whether you live in Te Tairawhiti or elsewhere in Aotearoa to take a look at Nati Power and to sign up before christmas to help lift the amount that we are able to raise for our marae.

Power prices vary across regions and can be very complicated, so for those who want to know more about the costs and savings you might make on Nati Power, we suggest you grab your last power bill and go to www.powerswitch.co.nz or ring Contact on 0800 80 9000 for a price comparison. If you are already with Contact Energy then you can easily switch over to Nati Power by filling out a form on Contact’s website.

*To sign up to Nati Power you must sign up to on-line services, be able to receive your bill on-line, and pay in full and on time each month via direct debit, internet banking or smoothing pay (excludes credit card and debit card payments). Further terms and conditions apply, see www.contact.co.nz/natipower for more information