About
Taranaki’s energy industries have provided employment, supported communities and profoundly shaped the region’s identity. They have also generated complex environmental, cultural and social questions.
Presented alongside Economies of Deferral, this two-part public programme brings personal experience into conversation with artistic perspectives.
Together, speakers and participants will consider the relationships between industry, whenua, workers and communities—reflecting on what the region’s energy history has made possible, what it has cost, and how Taranaki might approach future change in ways that are environmentally responsible, locally informed and socially just.
Part One: Working Lives and Industrial Legacies
1:00pm - 4:30pm
How have Taranaki’s energy industries shaped the lives, livelihoods and communities connected to them?
This kōrero reflects on the region’s energy-generating history through the experiences of people who have worked within and alongside the industry. It considers the employment, skills and economic security these industries created, while also making space for questions about environmental responsibility, whenua and long-term community impacts.
How were workers and their whānau affected by economic restructuring and changes within the sector? What different meanings can an industrial site hold for former workers, local residents, hapū and iwi?
Bringing lived experience into conversation with Economies of Deferral, the session explores how personal histories intersect with wider political and economic change. It asks how the region might recognise the value, tensions and unresolved legacies held within its industrial past.
Tea Break
Part Two: Shaping a Just Transition
3:00pm - 4:30pm
What would a fair and locally grounded energy transition in Taranaki’s look like—and who might help shape it?
This community kōrero builds upon Part One by looking towards Taranaki’s changing energy future. As governments, industries and communities consider moving toward lower-emissions energy, how can change respond to the aspirations and concerns of workers, hapū, iwi, landowners and local communities?
The discussion will explore what 'clean' or renewable energy looks like in practice, how environmental claims can be critically assessed, and how the benefits and burdens of new infrastructure are distributed. It will also consider tensions between national targets, commercial priorities and community responses to where and how projects are developed.
Bringing environmental advocacy and mātauranga Māori into conversation, this session invites participants to consider how future decisions might uphold relationships with whenua and taiao while supporting secure livelihoods and meaningful local participation.
Lead Contributor Bios:
Ruka Te Moana (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Te Aupōuri, Ngāpuhi) is Pou Urungi and Managing Director of Te Piringa Pūngao, a Māori-led renewable energy company working with iwi, hapū, marae, landowners, industry and local government to develop practical energy solutions. Before moving into renewable energy development, Ruka spent 15 years working in Taranaki’s oil and gas industry and seven years in secondary education. This experience gives him a practical understanding of the livelihoods, capabilities and communities connected to the region’s energy sector, as well as the challenges involved in managing change.
Brian Ropitini brings more than 35 years of executive leadership experience across the energy, manufacturing and petrochemical sectors in New Zealand and Canada. He is an experienced director and governor, serving as Chair of The Wells Group and holding governance roles with Ara Ake, Tui Ora and New Plymouth Community Church. Brian is the CEO of ETEL Transformers, a respected community leader, and has whakapapa links to Ngāruahine, Ngāti Mutunga and Whakatōhea.
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Image: Left: Ngahuia Harrison, Reservation #1, 2026, Digital colour print Right: Ngahuia Harrison, Image: Left: Matthew Galloway, Fragments of the Motunui Synthetic Petrol Plant Visitor Centre, 2026, Waitara Valley Methanol Plant Model, plastic wood, model produced c. 1981; Mari Kokako Model, metal, plastic; Cabo Negro Model, metal, plastic; Motunui Synthetic Petrol Plant Model, aerial view, wood, plastic, metal, model produced c. 1981, detail. Models from the collection of Methanex New Zealand Ltd. Right: Matthew Galloway, From the Minister of Energy — Carless Days, 2026, 4k digital video, Videography: Grant Priest, installation view, Economies of Deferral, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre, Ngāmotu New Plymouth. Courtesy of the artist.