The three finalists for the 2024 Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award have been announced.
They are Ben Purua (Tainui), Hannah Speakman (Ngāti Kahungunu) and Shayden Gardiner (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngā Rauru, Ngāti Rangi).
Lead judge Matiu Julian (Te Atihaunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Porou ki Harataunga) says what attracts many young Māori to the award is the realisation they are part of a legacy of Māori endeavour, resilience and tenacity.
“The personal experience as an Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer finalist is always profound and emotionally moving.”
The whakataukī, ‘He kai kei aku ringa – There is food at the end of my hands’, best encapsulates the essence of the award, he says.
“This proverb builds on an intergenerational intent to increase the productivity and capability of the Māori agribusiness sector, with flow on benefits to improve the health and wellbeing of the community.
“With a growing alumni group of young Māori leaders who continue to excel and uphold the mana of being an Ahuwhenua Young Māori ambassador, the future is in good hands.”
The Ahuwhenua Trophy full bios on each of the finalists are available here.
Ben Purua
A previous finalist for the award, 29-year-old Purua is the farm manager at Waimakariri Lands Ltd, which runs 540 cows near Tirau in Waikato.
Farming has been transformative for Purua, after adversity in his upbringing in Pukekohe - including exposure to gang life, substance abuse, and domestic violence - eventually led to time in Waikeria Prison. Work on the prison farms ignited a passion for farming and ultimately provided Purua with a path to positively redirect his life.
He now uses his personal journey as a presenter at the Waikeria Prison Farm open days to inspire hope and motivation among the men and encourage them to look at farming as a career.
Hannah Speakman
Speakman, 21, is employed as the 2IC for Woodlands Farming on Pine Hill Dairy farm in Enfield, near Oamaru. The farm is 170ha and milks 560 cows.
Her early childhood experience of farming was through her dad, John, who managed a sheep and beef farm in Hawke’s Bay.
Speakman decided to pursue a farming career after the first coronavirus lockdown put her final year of high school on pause and she found herself back home working with her dad every day. She was also inspired by the success of her sister Emma and brother-in-law Laurence’s dairy farming in Taupō.
At 18, she moved to the South Island chasing her dream and has spent the last three seasons working on farms in the area.
She says her employer Scott’s mentorship and extensive farm knowledge, taught to her with patience and enthusiasm, has had a huge impact on furthering her dairying career.
“I’m not sure where my career would be to this day if it weren’t for them, or if I’d even have one at all.”
Shayden Gardiner
Gardiner, 21, is the assistant farm manager for Ma Taua Dairies, Rylib Group, near Ashburton in mid-Canterbury – a 354ha farm which milks 1120 cows at peak.
He is a dad to three tamariki, Te Reimana (4), Tāwhirirangi (3) and Maddison (2), and with partner Ellie says they are his proudest achievement in life and the motivation to be his best.
Born in Whanganui and raised living a rural lifestyle, both Shayden’s father and his koko instilled in him a passion for the whenua, passing down their knowledge being farmers and hunter gatherers themselves.
Gardiner left school at 14 and ended up wool pressing in the shearing sheds and doing seasonal work for his dad on the sheep and beef station where they lived.
In 2019 he moved to Te Wai Pounamu by his partner’s whānau, where they began to build a new life. The following year, he started at Ma Taua Dairies where he has been for four years now.
Gardiner started out as a farm assistant, who was as ‘green as grass’ when it came to dairy, then two years later worked his way up to his current position as assistant manager.
His dream is to become a farm owner within the next 15 years.