Hinewai Ormsby

Hinewai Ormsby (Ngāti Kahungunu – Ngāti Paarau, Ngāti Hinepare, Ngāti Mahu, Ngāi Tawhao; Kāi Tahu – Kāti Irakehu, Kāti Mako) is in her third term as a Hawke's Bay Regional Councillor for Ahuriri/Napier.
In 2022 her fellow councillors elected her chair. She became the first Māori and the youngest person to lead Hawke's Bay Regional Council, and at the time the youngest regional council chair in the country. A few months later Cyclone Gabrielle hit, and she led the council through the recovery and the hard conversations about flood protection and the region's future.

Hinewai is mana whenua in Ahuriri and chairs the Waiohiki Marae Board of Trustees. She is also a strategic partner to Napier City Council and to Mana Ahuriri Trust, the post-settlement governance entity for Ahuriri hapū. She has sat at the council table and on the marae, so she understands engagement from both sides. She has seen what builds trust between councils and iwi, and what damages it.

She is closely involved in Hawke's Bay's local government reform and is following resource management reform. Her focus is on making sure Treaty settlements and existing co-governance arrangements are honoured as things change.

Outside council, Hinewai is a partner at Aquaculture Environmental Ltd and a papakāinga developer in Te Matau-a-Māui, where she lives with her whānau. She is completing a Master of Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University, researching iwi-led spatial planning, and sits on the Te Maruata committee.

She believes good engagement starts early, is honest, and is about relationships rather than process.