Kaikōura Rūnanga

Kia ora koutou e te whānau,

Auē, Te Whare Haumanu are wondering where Poutūterangi went and how we have made it to Hūrae so fast! These past few months have been filled with so much mahi and a lot of other different kaupapa on top of that! From trapping and conservation work to the Rangatahi Employment Programme, primary school visits, cultural development days and so much more – we have certainly been busy.

The Mahi Trapping

Our kaimahi have been getting out in te taiao, any chance they can, to check our traps. Section 3, Rakaitauheke, traps are all set, and the stats have been rolling in. We have had 20 catches in this section so far.

Our traps are only 50 metres apart in this section, so we are hoping to get really high stats in the months to come.

Sections 1 and 2, Marukaitātea and Tūteurutira respectively, have been bringing us amazing views and awesome catches. We currently have one rangatahi doing work experience with us in the section Marukaitātea. We absolutely love that we can include different members of our community into our mahi.

Hurunui

Our kaimahi have extended their footprint and are now working at the south side of our takiwā near the Hurunui awa. We have a new contract with Environment Canterbury doing weed control and planting. Everyone is gaining a lot more knowledge with this project from the planning behind the scenes to the groundwork on site.

Oaro Hāpua

The hāpua has been pretty wet lately but that hasn’t slowed down our kaimahi. They have been killing the hardwood trees that are along the riverbed. This is because the roots of the hardwood trees grow into the riverbank and stop the natural flow of the river. Infill planting has also been happening to fill any gaps among our growing plants. Our kaimahi are still loving being down at the hāpua and doing the mahi.

Kura Visits

The first round of kura visits has been done with two primary schools in Kaikōura. The tamariki welcomed us with so much aroha. It was amazing to hear how much they retained from our visit last year and all their new whakaaro. This time we were able to take taxidermy animals with us which was awesome for the tamariki and ourselves to get an up-close look at the animals.

What’s happening in June/July?

June is a busy month, with our schedule filling up rather quickly!

Along with our four projects we are currently working on we also have more kura visits coming up, another round for our Rangatahi Employment Programme, the garden bird survey and so much more.

We also have our whānau dinner in May to thank all of our amazing whānau for supporting us all in our mahi. We really couldn’t do our mahi without everyone’s support.

If whānau have any questions or would like to receive our TWOM pānui, please feel free to email: savannah.manawatu@ngaitahu.iwi.nz

Like and follow our project: Te-Tau-Wairehu-o-Marokura-predator-control-project-1v

Whare Taonga

Auē, six months have flown by since Waipuhi, Moruka, Rākaitekura, and Tohorā were officially opened at Takahanga Marae. All four whare have been thriving with whānau and manuhiri going through and checking out the handy work of our tīpuna.

Archaeologists have been able to visit and look at the taonga that they found during the road reconstruction after our 2016 earthquake.

There has also been a lot of mahi going on behind the scenes by our curator Te Āwhina and our intern Savannah (below). A special trip was made to Tāmaki Makaurau to bring home one of our taonga that had been living in Tāmaki for a long time. We have been receiving a lot of taonga from our community and new pieces that have recently be found. We can feel the manaaki from all and feel proud to be able to house our taonga for our whānau.

If anyone is interested in visiting the Whare Taonga please contact whare.taonga@ngaitahu.iwi.nz