‘We grow our people’: Wairoa trust cares for community and land while teaching rangatahi life skills

by Gianina Schwanecke, RNZ 

It’s been a year of firsts for Wairoa’s post-settlement trust, Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa. 

Not only did Haumako — the horticulture branch of the trust — celebrate its first commercial apple harvest, it also celebrated the first of its cadets graduating from its horticultural training course. 

The cadetship, which started three years ago, has seen five young people from the rohe complete their Level 3 horticulture certification through the Eastern Institute of Technology while working on an orchard set up by the trust. 

Haumako general manager Robin Kaa (Ngāti Rongomaiwahine) said it was part of the trust’s aim to “utilise our whenua and grow our people”. 

The cadetship started by welcoming students aged 15 to 17, “fresh out of school” and “new to the industry”, but had since expanded to include up to 30-year-olds. 

The “earn as you learn” approach not only offered employment opportunities, but was empowering Wairoa’s rangatahi. 

Kaa said sometimes horticulture wasn’t the right fit or the timing might be wrong, but every cadet left having learned something. 

George Cox is one of the recent graduates, having been with the team for three years. 

“I’ve been able to get my Level 3 through this cadetship,” he told RNZ. “It feels good. I got kicked out of school and stuff like that so I had no NCEA levels, and now I’ve got something.” 

Horticulture is not a large industry in Wairoa, though that was something Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa hoped to change. It had planted 28ha of land owned by the trust and Ohuia Incorporation. The orchard sits alongside the Wairoa River and was previously a sheep and beef block. 

Kaa said there was a lot of Māori-owned land that could be used better than for cropping or stock grazing. 

“The idea of this is to grow the horticulture industry in Wairoa, just knowing there is very little commercial horticulture in Wairoa.” 

It had been a “big transition” for the team, and one of the key factors which had enabled the land use change was the trust’s ability to draw and store water from the Wairoa River. 

“It starts with the horticulture, but there’s the opportunity once we’ve got the water, we’ve got the land and we grow our people.” 

Caring for the land was a key focus for the horticulture team, which monitored its runoff, maintained waterways and was busy with riparian planting. 

“A part of our values is the kaitiakitanga of our whenua,” Kaa said. “And we understand it’s a big challenge to have a corporate business in this industry trying to meet those bottom line returns, but also look after the whenua as best we can. What we’re doing now is building a good footing for the generations to come.” 

Looking to the future, the trust hoped to grow its water storage and orchard infrastructure, as well as developing a first-stage packhouse. 

The apples were grown primarily for the export market, but developing a pack and storehouse would help mitigate potential road closures which impact the region following severe weather, and allow them to hold over stock. 

“We understand horticulture; growing the trees and growing the product is probably the first step. Where we’d like to be is [to] have the ability to grow it — also pack it and market it,” Kaa saids. 

“The idea of this whole entity is it’s for future generations.”