How Whaea Di found her way home

There’s not much Whaea Di doesn’t do at Te Ope Whakaora in Ngāmotu.

Aside from being a warm and welcoming presence, she has a range of other roles in reintegration services, as a cultural advisor for the Bridge programme, teaching waiata for Māori Ministries, coordinating the Recovery Church, organising speakers on different kaupapa Māori subjects and providing spirituality guidance and other lifestyle programmes to those who need them.

But despite being a busy kuia with many pōtae, there’s nothing rushed about Whaea Di, who takes it all in her stride and does what she does for the good of her people.

As a soldier in Te Ope Whakaora, Whaea Di is a valuable resource for the Ngāmotu Corps and brings a wealth of experience of both the hāhi and the important social services Te Ope Whakaora provides.

“I didn’t come to the Lord because of just walking into the hāhi,” she says.

“I was a broken person once too.”

Not that you’d know it.

Diane Rangi (Ngāti Maru, Te Atiawa, Taranaki) is from Waitara but spent many years in Whanganui, where her whānau came under the tutelage of former Māori officers Wayne and Harriet Moses.

“It was awesome,” she says.

“We learnt a lot with Wayne and Harriet and so we knew about the Māori Ministries here in the Salvation Army. The one thing that I always remember Wayne would say: ‘If you want to know where or what our people are doing and if you want to see where God is, go out. Go out there and look.”

So that’s what she did for ten years, before moving back to Waitara in 2015. Once back home, she began looking for a place for fellowship.

“I was asking around Waitara because I knew they had a Salvation Army there but they didn’t have the hāhi. So I went around all the churches and you know, it just wasn’t me.”

Eventually, a friend invited her to attend what she thought was an Anglican karakia in Ngāmotu but she began wondering when they pulled into the Salvation Army Corps in the city.

“We were coming up the drive here and I’m like, hey, this ain’t Māori Anglican. What are we doing here? So anyways, we parked up and came in and it was full of all the Māori Ministries. Hana (Seddon) was here. Sandy (Galvin) was here and Ken (Te Tau), Ken was here and I was looking around and thought, my gosh, I know all these people. And straight away it just felt like God had brought me home,” she says.

That was in 2020 and she’s been ever-present in Ngāmotu since then.

Having found her way home, Whaea Di didn’t muck around. She introduced herself to then-Corps Captain Karl Foreman and got to know the Māori Ministries leaders before making Karl an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“I said to him, ‘you need to put me in as a soldier. I want to soldier up’.”

As many others have learned, it’s not easy saying no to Whaea Di so she became a soldier and set to work. Despite facing a few challenges along the way, Whaea Di continues to work to ensure the Ngāmotu Corps is a welcoming place for whānau Māori and anyone else in the community.

“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs but it’s been worth it, going through all that,” she says.

“Not just for our people, but for everybody, because here we get the lowest of the low. It doesn’t matter whether they’re Māori, Pākehā, Jewish or whatever, we’re always here.”

One of the challenges she – and the Corps – have faced has been around increasing the use of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori throughout the congregation and in the services they provide, with these initiatives given impetus and validation following the signing of the Kawenata in 2023.

Normalising whakaaro Māori and te reo me ngā tikanga is an important aspect of providing a welcoming and safe space for Māori, something which wasn’t always the case.

While she felt comfortable within the Ngāmotu Corps, Whaea Di says there was no visible Māori presence and nothing to indicate that Māori belonged.

There’s a statement, she says, ‘a place to belong before you believe’.

She has been doing her utmost to make the Corps a place of belonging for whānau Māori and has strong support from current Corps officers, Auxiliary Captains Gareth and Maryanne Shearman.

And while some members didn’t agree with the changes, “we just kept welcoming them, awhi them, let them know that we’re just here under the one umbrella, under the one man, and that’s Jesus”.

“We talk about manaakitanga, we talk about aroha, but if you’re just going to talk about it, that’s not good enough,” she says.

While there are more plans underway – including installing tukutuku panels along one wall –they are already seeing some positive results.

“We’re singing Māori waiata, we’re talking i roto i te reo Māori and it’s just beautiful to be able to do that. There’s more people coming to our services and they know about our Māori Ministries here and I always say to them we’re very light when it comes to our tikanga Māori so our foundation is Jesus Christ. Whether it be healing, whether it be karakia or whatever, that’s our foundation.”

And while more are coming to the services, Whaea Di remains a keen follower of the advice of Wayne Moses, urging colleagues to get out in the community to see where God’s work is taking place.

“Many of our people are homeless and everybody was talking about bringing them here, but no. You get out there. Don’t talk about homelessness, go and visit them, go and talk to them, go and feed them, do whatever. Ko ērā ngā mahi.”