WHENUA MAGAZINE | ISSUE 37
HEKE MAI TE KAWA ORA NEW KAITIAKI TAIAO TEAM
Five new kaimahi will spend the next three years reconnecting to their whenua and identity through the new Kaitiaki Taiao Team at Parininihi ki Waitōtara. FourTeRauWhakauruora/KaitiakiCadetsandoneTe Rau Whakaueue / Kaitiaki Supervisor have been chosen for the team, which is part of the Tupu Rawa project, saysPunaWano-Bryant,TeRautitikura/General Manager Shareholder Engagement. Theproject,deliveredbyPKW,thisyearreceived$1.2 million in government funding through the Department of Conservation to restore and enhance the biodiversity and cultural values across waterways, stream tributaries and wetlands throughout the Taranaki.
fencing and retiring land where possible. “We recognise there are areas on our farms that need to be protected – wetlands, gullies and so on that aren’t appropriateforpasture,andalsoourpreciouswāhitapu.” The team members began their new roles in August, just twodaysbeforeAotearoawentintoLevel4lockdown.“We called it the long induction,” Puna laughs. Instead of two weeks of internal inductions, they did threeweeksofonlinewānanga.“Wemetwiththemevery
“That’s the largest funded of all the projects from Taranaki,” she says.
day via Zoom… and developed a very rich cultural and
It will build on work the organisation already has under way across 3300 hectares of land adjacent to waterways.
The‘we’werePuna,TongaKarena,TeRauwhakaihoiho/
environmental programme for them.” KaitiakitangaStrategyManagerandJoSullivan,TeRau
Whakaueue /KaitiakiSupervisorfortheKaitiakiTaiaoTea TheprojectisalsoaboutprovidingrangatahiMāori with new skills. “The objective is that, at the end, it will create Those lockdown sessions included cultural competency a pathway for these cadets to enter into Taiao work training,thePKWstory,mātaurangaMāori,incorporating anywhere,” Puna says. Māorivaluesintokaitiakiwork,environmentalscience, biodiversity, water and cultural health monitoring and PKWfarmshavewaterwaysthatrequiremonitoring,so the KaitiakiTaiaoTeamwillberesponsibleformonitoring them, ecosystems.
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28 HE WHENUA
