On his third attempt, previously thwarted by weather, prime minister Chris Hipkins visited our flood-ravaged town, Wairoa. He offered no specific assurances regarding long-term financial help but did credit iwi (tribes) and marae (meeting grounds) for the critical work they had undertaken over the past month. He acknowledged the likelihood of an event as Cyclone Gabrielle occurring again, adding that the cumulative effect of the damage wrought provided a reminder of the “volatility of New Zealand” and that more could be done. One lesson, he submitted, was “you can never have one plan and assume that plan will work”.
This observation is understood instinctively by people like local teacher José, who was out on the morning after the floods, riding on horseback through brown waters with his students to save a flooded Māori language learning centre. This knowledge is why he and others like him may view formal visits by those in suits with scepticism, trepidation. There is the sense that it is works that ought to precede words.
