Working to restore the mana and mauri of awa (streams) around Tūranganui-a-Kiwa is the goal of Haumanu Tū Ora.
Haumanu Tū Ora is a mana whenua and Gisborne District Council collaborative project focused on improving the urban streams around the city.
The project’s Jess Terekia did a public presentation at the HB Williams Memorial Library to share what they do and inspire future kaitiaki as part of Conservation Week.
Students from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Mangatuna made the trip to listen to Terekia because they have dedicated lessons around taiao and conservation.
“We aim to assess, remediate and monitor the issues and solutions of our urban stream here in Tūranga for the health of awa and people alike,” she said. “Alongside mana whenua, we aim to improve their nominated and preferred waterways to aid in the restoration of mauri and ora by catering our environmental planning around what makes each of them special.”
They do this through riparian planting, wetland restoration, the removal of fish passage barriers and enhancing fish spawning sites.
“One way of improving the mauri is by bringing more activity to the awa, such as more manu (birds) and native species visiting them,” Terekia said. “To get more manu to visit we take out all the rakau (trees, plants) that don’t belong in Tūranga and plant native trees and plants that our manu love.”
The trees also provide shade for ika (fish), which need the awa to be cool.
Areas they have worked on include Nelson Park, Waiteata Park, Waikirikiri Park and along the Kopuawhakapata Stream in Dickson St.
Kopuawhakapata has been one of the most polluted streams in the country and the rōpū is working to help turn that around.
“The main focus is to get rid of everything wrong and put in everything right to help protect the whenua,” Terekia said.
The project’s name shares the story of its goal to revitalise and rehabilitate the taiao to its healthy state and acknowledges that in urban settings, restoration of urban streams would not suit the reality of urban human lifestyles.
When doing the mahi at Waikirikiri Park, local kura and mana whenua got involved because the group wanted them to feel pride in their space, Terekia said.
Along with the planting, another way to bring back awa and streams’ mana is giving them names.
“Most of these streams don’t have names as they have been lost in history, so a challenge or idea is for tamariki to feel the wāhi (location) and come up with an ingoa for it.”
Haumanu Tū Ora is funded through the Ministry for the Environment’s Freshwater Improvement Fund and Gisborne District Council.