9 minute read
Whanake mai ai - Puia ki te hauangi: Supporting our whānau, marae pā, hapū and uri to reach their potential.
Falling for te Taiao: The mahi transforming ngahere and kaimahi rangatahi
Toa Taiao trapper Mawene Bidois knew nothing about the Taiao when he came to work for Taranaki Iwi.
The 33-year-old had notched up 12 years in scaffolding when he was drawn to work he saw iwi doing in te Taiao.
“All I knew was that I wanted to get in there, too. I didn’t quite know what I was getting into – I just wanted to get back to our iwi, our whānau and our people.”
“When you’ve been brought up around te ao Māori and go through kōhanga and kura, the transition into te ao hurihuri, the Pākehā world, leads to a lot of mistakes and trials and tribulations. I noticed I was going up and down in that world. I wanted to change – that’s what brought me back to here.”
Mawene took up a cadet ranger role several years ago with the Taranaki Mounga Project, a conservation partnership between Taranaki Iwi, the community and government to eradicate pests and weeds and restore wildlife across more than 34,000ha.
“I worked alongside Te Papa Atawhai/Department of Conservation (DOC) to pick up skills and mātauranga to bring back to wānanga with our iwi.”
He jumped at a chance to join the Toa Taiao trapping team, Te Patu Kiore, working to protect and restore biodiversity on ancestral lands by controlling invasive species.
The team’s name Toa Taiao – Guardians of the Environment – resonates with Mawene. He has found the work is nurturing deep connections back to the whenua.
“I didn’t know much about trapping, I didn’t know our manu were in decline. Being in this Taiao space opened up my whakaaro and mātauranga around our rākau, our manu, our awa, our mounga.”
“It wasn’t just trapping, it was everything about reconnecting ourselves to the Taiao. And the best thing for me is that my mahi is for our whānau, our iwi.”
“Fast forward two years, and I have completed my Level 3 pest management course. Now I’ve put my hand up for the Level 4 conservation course. It’s been a challenge, but I’ve accepted that wero. I’m not the type of person to give up.”
Mawene says the introduction of invasive predators like rats, stoats and possums has caused serious damage to native flora and fauna. He says intensive pest control programmes like Te Patu Kiore help protect and restore fragile ecosystems.
“It involves trapping kiore, stoats, ferrets, possums and sometimes feral cats on the 29 pā sites that have been handed back to Taranaki Iwi by treaty settlement. It also covers the trap network on the western face of the mounga. That’s a virgin area with no trap boxes. We’re just starting the network, working from the bottom.”
The father of two says he hopes more rangatahi will adopt kaitiakitanga as a philosophy for life.
“It’s taken getting to 30 for me to know that we have a beautiful Taiao. There’s a lot of areas we need to be working in. It’s not just trapping – it’s growing our native rākau, looking after our waterways, and we’ve got a big moana out here, too.”
“All that mātauranga that’s passed down to me, hopefully I can pass down to future generations. I’d like to keep this ball rolling. I want our tamariki to want to be in the Taiao. I want my mokopuna to one day look back and say ‘my koro was the man’. So I give back to our whānau and tamariki for āpōpō.”
Tipunakore Rangiwai also came to Te Patu Kiore from the Taranaki Mounga Project. He was welcomed as a 16-year-old, one of the first cadet rangers under the START (Supporting Today’s At Risk Teenagers) programme and working closely with DOC on predator control.
“I was in my teenage phase and playing up a little bit, I guess, learning right from wrong.
I literally did not know anything about mahi Taiao, but after my first day I couldn’t believe you could consider that a job. It just didn’t feel like it. You get to be out in nature all day, up on the maunga. It’s just beautiful. I pretty much fell in love.”
Now 20, Tipunakore says he enjoys the physical challenge. “I thought I was fit from sport but up on the maunga it’s a whole different type of fitness. I enjoy the challenge, the hikes, being able to walk kilometres every day in the bush … not many other people get to do that. It has been a confidence boost for me.”
After completing his two-year Taiao apprenticeship, Tipunakore joined the Taranaki Iwi environmental team.
“I like being able to use what I’ve learnt and develop new skills, like organising trap lines. This mahi has changed my life drastically, in so many ways. I have the opportunity to better myself and keep working toward being my best version.”
“It’s a massive privilege to be able to honour those taiao spaces by trying to revitalise them. It just feels purposeful. You can actually make an impact on something.”
“From the time that I’ve worked in there, you can see a difference. You hear and see more manu and there aren’t as many pests in the traps. You see the ngahere grow. It used to be really grey in the undergrowth, and now in certain parts of the bush that we’re trapping out, you see growth, it’s green and the canopy’s thriving.”
“I’m just grateful to Taranaki Mounga Project for giving me the opportunity and to everyone who has helped me and taught me something on my journey.”
What does it mean to work for the iwi?
Internships, cadetships and work experience opportunities are creating pathways for young people into Taranaki Iwi spaces.
Pou Kōkiri Mark Wipatene says a key initiative is opening the doors for uri to experience working in the iwi environment.
“We’re making a conscious effort to create opportunities in everything we do to include cadets, interns and experiences that will forge a pathway for uri, particularly taiohi.”
“These opportunities bring uri in to find out what it is to work for the iwi. It exposes them to the many things we do as an organisation. It also allows us to identify talent, to develop pathways for our young ones to be involved and to grow our succession plans.”
Te Kāhui runs an internship programme providing paid opportunities for several tertiary students each semester break, a total of at least 10 throughout the year. The short periods of on-the-job experience are pitched mainly at university students but are also open to any uri who may be interested.
Interns generally work in the office with management and administration teams, and in the summer help organise wānanga and events.
Cadet programmes are a longer-term investment, providing deeper insights into working for the iwi. Cadetships are currently in place in two areas – design and communications, and te Taiao.
Digital design and communications cadet Casio Austin’s stint with Te Kāhui comes on the back of training in the first cohort of the LearnerMe information technology programme. The cadetship is developing Casio’s skills and knowledge, and bringing her graphic design skills to iwi communications, merchandise, pānui and web development.
There are also two kaitiaki whenua cadets in the environmental team. Working mainly with the Jobs for Nature/Maara Kai teams, the cadets are gaining handson experience in all Toa Taiao workstreams.
“We’re always looking for avenues to develop more opportunities for uri, whether cadetships, internships or employment,” Mark says.
The Trust also works with fellow iwi to share mātauranga and skills.
“As the environmental programme has advanced over the past 12 months, a Taiao partnership with Ngā Rauru has developed to bring one of their kaitiaki taiao to join us three days a week.”
“It’s an opportunity for that person to learn, observe and participate in mahi we’re doing and take new skills back to Ngā Rauru to help implement their taiao programme.”
“That’s been working really well. It’s nice to have that relationship with a fellow iwi organisation, to be able to rekindle those relationships and awhi each other.”
Internships
Anika Bailey, Nicola Mathys, Rongomaihenga Waerea-Hohaia, Shaye Witehira
Cadets - Fatiauma Moeahu-Leota, Rhys Young
Work Placement - Iwi collaboration with Ngā Rauru
Kī Tahi: Timara Wallace
Work Experience
Charles Knight, Matthew Knight, Sean Young, Taiora Capper, Te Rauna Whaiapu-Cassidy
Kōrari Pāhake Grants - A partnership with Triton Hearing
A partnership agreement between Te Kāhui o Taranaki and Triton Hearing is giving eligible pāhake free hearing tests, funding for hearing aids and a lifetime care package.
The Kōrari Pāhake Grants were launched at the AGM in October 2022. The partnership initiative offers free diagnostic hearing assessments to eligible pāhake. If a hearing aid is required, a contribution of up to $1000 is made for moulds, examinations or hearing devices.
In addition, Triton Hearing provides a lifetime free care package (valued at $1200) for the iwi member. The package includes free follow-up appointments and onsite repairs for the life of the hearing aid.
Seventeen uri were screened initially, and 12 pāhake have so far received funding of up to $1000 toward their hearing aids.
Te Kāhui has a Hearing Kiosk at our Young Street offices for anyone who would like to drop in and do a hearing check.
FREE diagnostic hearing assessments
Upto $1000 contribution to moulds, exams or hearing devices
FREE lifetime care package
17 Screened initially
12 Funded (up to $1000 for hearing aids)
Learner Me Hangarau Akoranga (LMHA) programme
The website design and rebuild continued over the past year in conjunction with the ‘no cost’ Information Technology programme led by Learner Me Tech Academy. Learner Me runs programmes based in New Plymouth for taiohi aged between 15 and 24.
A second cohort of nine tauira worked on the design and web pages last year and graduated in November 2022. The third cohort of seven tauira worked on the final design, colour palette, aesthetic look and feel, and dialogue updates, and will graduate in January 2024.
Haoro Hond was contracted to lead the final stage. A programme of guest speakers shared their knowledge with tauira on subjects including Taiao and GIS mapping systems, Māori game development, toi Māori and Taranakitanga. To learn more about Taranaki Iwi sites and historical events, tauira also visited pā sites and marae, and took part in riparian planting.
The draft website design and rebuild will be presented to Te Kāhui o Taranaki operations team for a final review before being coded by Learner Me as a finished product, ready to launch later in 2023.
