'Whakatāne Ki Mua' translates to 'Whakatāne moving forward' and is the name for the Whakatāne District Community Vision project.

The Whakatāne District Council initiated this project in November 2016. Whakatāne Ki Mua aims to understand what people love and value about our District, our towns and communities, and identify a shared vision of what we want for our future. By asking people about their priorities and aspirations, we can work together to enhance our District and ensure it continues to be a place with lots of opportunities and a great quality of life.

About Whakatāne Ki Mua

Our District is a mosaic of interconnected communities. We love it, we're proud of it, and we know that it offers a fantastic quality of life. 'Whakatāne Ki Mua' translates to 'Whakatāne moving forward'. It is a process which aims to encourage collaboration and citizen action to ensure our District continues to be a great place to live. This starts with finding out more about what people love and value about our towns and our communities, and identifying a shared vision of what we want for our future.

The Vision

Vibrant. Engaged. Connected.
Whitawhita. Pāhekoheko. Tūhononga.
"The Whakatāne District is a place where our people feel included, valued and inspired to achieve. We care for and have fun exploring the environment which shapes us. Our vibrant community contributes to a thriving economy that benefits everyone."

Purpose

Understanding each other's priorities and aspirations

Develop a common vision and priorities for our communities and for the District as a whole.

Empowering community

Support and empower people and groups to take action and make positive changes for their communities.

Enhancing relationships

Enhance relationships between communities, groups, and organisations so that we can achieve better things together.

Aligning effort and resources

Ensure that the investment of effort and resources into our District from agencies and organisations is aligned to the community’s needs, desires and vision for the future.

What the Community Vision might look like

We expect that the Community Vision process will identify a broad range of issues, opportunities, priorities and aspirations for the future of our District, covering a wide variety of social, cultural, environmental and economic outcomes.

These may vary in scale and complexity. For example, outcomes may be short-term or long-term - from actions that can happen immediately, through to a 10 or even 15-year horizon. Some outcomes may be relevant to the whole District, while others might apply only to a specific town or area of the District.

The Community Vision will collect this information and arrange it by theme and by area to paint a picture of community priorities and aspirations for our future. We won't know what that future looks like until the community has spoken.

Who is involved / Ki Mua Partners

Our District has a range of very passionate and invested people, groups and organisations already doing fantastic work within the community. We all have different areas of focus and expertise, and different connections to the community that will benefit this project, so we're keen for the project to be very collaborative from the outset. A collaborative approach provides a way to explore any new opportunities for collective impact of our efforts in response to the priorities and aspirations our communities identify.

Many organisations, agencies and community groups have indicated their willingness to be involved in the project in some capacity, and this list is continuing to grow. Currently Whakatāne District Council is taking the lead role, but as the project progresses we envisage that this responsibility will be shared across a wider number of partners.

List of partners

The journey so far

We’ve been out and about – all over the Whakatāne District – talking to our communities about what’s important to you. You’ve provided us with over 18,000 ideas and comments that tell us our District is an amazing place to call home. The feedback provided is brimming with ways that we can make our District even better together! Here’s the journey so far...

(If you want to download this information and read it later, grab the file below.)

Whakatāne Ki Mua - The journey so far - (PDF, 5.5 MB)