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Growing the next generation of river guardians

Nearly 200 rangatahi Māori will have a greater appreciation of their ancestral awa after taking part in a Waikato River Authority-funded environmental programme aimed at connecting youth to the stories of the Waikato River.

Kura Waitī Ki Kura Waitā is being run as part of the Waikato Regional Council’s environmental educational programme under the tutelage of waka and river expert Turanga Barclay-Kerr from Te Toki Voyaging Trust.

The Waikato River Authority is funding the programme for three years to 2025 and over that time it will be delivered to 19 Kura Kaupapa Māori, 171 kaitiaki rangatahi and 19 kaitiaki kaiako, with the aim of connecting our young people to the river, its stories and their ancestors, and to produce the next generation of kaitiaki taiao for their tūpuna awa (ancestral river).

Barclay-Kerr leads the programme and is enjoying working with the next generation of guardians of the river.

“If these students return to their schools, their families, their communities, and marae and take up the role of being a guardian over the environment of their rivers, this kaupapa will be a success,” he says.

“I feel we're having more impact this year, our second year, with new kura on board. In the long term for us, the rangatahi we are capturing now, in the future, they will be us. They will pick up this knowledge and be the next generation of kaitiaki.”

He says the inclusion of kura from Tūwharetoa has been enlightening.

“For them to see what some of the river looks like. They go, ‘it’s blue, like the ocean at our place, how does it get like this’. They can feel it and it fosters questions from them, what happened? Having more people like that, aware of it and making that physical connection with the awa, having some sense of belonging and asking ‘what can you do to make it better’.”

The programme aligns with Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato – The Vision and Strategy for the Waikato River – to sustain abundant life and prosperous communities for generations to come.

Kura Waitī Ki Kura Waitā uses a specific Waikato maatauranga programme, including traditional Māori waka to engage rangatahi Māori in activities that help protect and restore the health and well-being of the Waikato River and its tributaries.

The programme aligns with Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato –The Vision and Strategy for the Waikato River – to sustain abundant life and prosperous communities for generations to come.

It is delivered using te reo me ngā tikanga Māori o Waikato, further connecting the rangatahi with their tūpuna awa through stories, pūrakau, waiata and kōrero.

Arna Solomon-Banks, Kaihāpai Hōtaka Mātauranga at the Waikato Regional Council, says the programme has been more successful than imagined.

“A lot of schools were picking up the Enviroschools kaupapa, which is great, but not our Kura Kaupapa Māori. This is a way to address that. The lightbulb moment for all this was realising the way to do this was to take our kids back to our awa and use our waka. Everyone reconnects as soon as they’re on the awa.”

She worked with the five river iwi involved in the development of the programme and says it had to be inclusive of each of them.

“It had to serve them and they had to find a place in this kaupapa.”

After six kura took part in the initial programme, the numbers have doubled and interest continues to grow, and not just from Kura Kaupapa Māori.

“We have 22 on the waiting list, along with interest from bi-lingual units, English medium schools and iwi groups. With the support of the Waikato River Authority, 12 kura kaupapa Māori are on the programme. But it’s not about numbers, it’s about growing our communities and our rangatahi. We will know we are doing a good job when these rangatahi go back and become kaitiaki. It’s an intergenerational ripple effect that benefits our awa, our rangatahi, whānau, hapū and iwi.”

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