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Ngā Tangata o te Marama
Hinemoa Katene
In 2021, a national emergency management conference, Hinemoa Katene felt something shift. After decades working on the frontlines of disaster responses, from floods to wildfire, earthquakes to droughts, she saw, with sharp clarity, what was missing: Māori voices, Māori solutions, Māori leadership.
That moment lit a fire.
Hinemoa had already spent years working in iwi, hapū, and community spaces, responding, supporting, restoring. But this was different. It wasn’t just about making space within the system, it was about creating something new. Something by us, for us. A shift in practice, in power, and in purpose.
She stepped into a regional leadership role as Senior Māori Integration Officer at the Wellington Regional Emergency Management Office, where she began to actively reweave tikanga, whanaungatanga and mātauranga Māori into a system that had long overlooked them. That role was never just a job, it was a deliberate decision to challenge the status quo and advocate for responses rooted in relationships, not bureaucracy.
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Today, Hinemoa is the co-founder of Hono, the Māori Emergency Management Network, a kaupapa Māori initiative designed to restore our collective strength. Hono doesn’t wait for top-down directives. Instead, it moves from the inside out, working in kura, with whānau, and through grassroots networks to prepare communities for the inevitable. It supports Māori to reclaim what was always ours - the ability to care for ourselves in times of crisis, drawing on knowledge systems that have sustained us for generations.
Hinemoa’s approach is shaped by lived experience. Raised in Māori communities across Aotearoa and Australia, she grew up with a deep sense of collective responsibility. Preparedness was both practical, extra kai, stored water and a plan, and cultural, a daily practice of whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, and aroha. Years later, time in the United States expanded her perspective further, witnessing firsthand the devastation of large-scale disasters and how marginalised communities were often left behind.
She returned home with a sharpened understanding, that emergency management, if it is to be effective, must be community-led and culturally grounded. For Hinemoa, mātauranga Māori is not a theoretical idea. It’s a lived, embodied system, one where leadership is shared, care is constant, and decisions are made with generations in mind. She believes our tikanga holds the blueprint for how communities respond, not just to disasters, but to everyday hardship.
And hardship is a daily reality for many whānau. Poverty, overcrowded housing, limited access to health and education, these are not side issues, they are the context within which emergencies unfold. Asking communities to prepare for disaster without addressing these inequities is, as she says, not just unrealistic, it’s unjust.
Still, Māori communities continue to lead. From Kaikōura to Pigeon Valley, from Cyclone Gabrielle to the Auckland floods, and through the Whakaari eruption, it has been iwi, hapū, and marae that have stepped up first. Their responses are agile, culturally anchored, and attuned to the needs of their people. Yet again and again, this leadership goes unrecognised, unsupported, and underfunded.
There is hope.
Across the motu, Māori are stepping forward, not waiting for permission, but building preparedness programmes, running wānanga, educating tamariki, and looking after each other.
This is not a fringe movement, it is the foundation of a better system.
Hinemoa is unapologetic in her vision of a future where emergency management is grounded in tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) and genuine partnership. That means moving away from one-size-fits-all frameworks and supporting place-based approaches that reflect the wisdom and leadership already alive in our communities. It means power-sharing. It means resourcing Māori solutions, not just in rhetoric, but in real budgets and real decision-making.
There is hope. Across the motu, Māori are stepping forward, not waiting for permission, but building preparedness programmes, running wānanga, educating tamariki, and looking after each other. This is not a fringe movement, it is the foundation of a better system.
For those wanting to enter this space, Hinemoa offers a clear invitation, there’s room for everyone. Whether your skills lie in logistics, mental health, communications, research, or kaupapa Māori leadership, every role contributes to the safety and wellbeing of our people.
And it starts at home. A basic emergency plan, knowing where to go, who to call, what to pack, can transform how whānau respond to crisis. When you prepare together, you not only increase survival, you build confidence, connection, and resilience. Research shows it, and our own lived experience proves it: prepared communities experience less long-term harm, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
At the heart of all this lies a simple truth. In any disaster, the most important asset isn’t the system.
It’s the people.