Kuao Langsbury ONZM is a Ngāi Tahu leader, Treaty negotiator, and long-standing advocate for community and education. He played a key role in the Ngāi Tahu Settlement, served 17 years on the Ngāi Tahu Māori Trust Board, and chaired multiple entities including Te Runaka o Ōtākou.
Kuao is recognised as one of the founders of Ārai te Uru Kōkiri Training Centre and was a former Chair . Kuao is recognised for his consensus-based leadership and lifelong commitment to strengthening people, whānau, and iwi.
Arai Te Uru Kōkiri Training Centre (Kōkiri) has provided education, training and support in a kaupapa Māori environment since 1983.
Kōkiri was an initiative of a few of the dedicated members of the Araiteuru Marae Council in Ōtepoti, New Zealand. It was originally formed to provide a work skills programme for the many young unemployed Māori at that particular time.
Originally an Incorporated Society, it was restructured as a Charitable Trust in 2011.Throughout the intervening years, Kōkiri has always adapted to the changing and challenging economic and political environment to provide a variety of high quality educational and training programmes.
Kōkiri has never lost sight of who we are, and why we exist. As laid out in the Trust Deed, our mission is to promote the advancement of education and vocational training and the care, support, and development of all people in our community.
Today, we are the only remaining Māori Private Training Establishment (PTE) south of Christchurch. Education and vocational training is delivered through holistic and integrated programmes in a kaupapa Māori environment. This way we can accommodate the needs of all tauira, and in particular the Māori and Pasifika community.
It's this approach that gives Kōkiri a very unique point of difference to other organisations and speaks to its success and longevity in our community.
Arai Te Uru Kōkiri Training Centre provides a kaupapa Māori pathway for education success and parity for Māori and for others wishing to learn in a kaupapa Māori environment.
We do this by embracing te reo me ōna tikanga Māori and by nurturing our connections through whakapapa. At all times, we uphold the kawa of kā Papatipu Rūnaka o Arai Te Uru.
Rangatiratanga
We demonstrate strong leadership, good governance, transparent decision-making and work together as a team to achieve our goals
Manaakitanga
We behave in a way that is tika and that enhances the mana of our tauira and the wider hāpori.
Kaitiakitanga
We will respect the kaitiaki interests of mana whenua and uphold respect for the landscape and associated taonga for future generations.
Kōtahitanga
Our decisions foster unity amongst the trustees, kaimahi, tauira and hāpori.WairuatangaWe celebrate the spiritual dimension of Te Ao Māori.
Whanaungatanga
We involve our people in decision making processes, the pathways available to our tauira and keep them informed of activities that affect them. We will respect our relationships and community connections and the responsibilities that go with this.
Ahi kaa
We acknowledge the place and traditions of mana whenua within the Kāi Tahu takiwā.
