2 research outputs found
Ko te awa kia rere; ko te iwi kia ora: A study of the cultural and social impacts of Pūniu River Care
In March 2021, individuals who had whakapapa connections to Mangatoatoa and Ngāti Maniapoto and were academics from Te Herenga Waka: Victoria University of Wellington were approached to undertake a study that explored the social and cultural outcomes that have been achieved by the approach taken by Pūniu River Care. The overarching goal of this study was to understand how having a marae-based organisation who are tasked with improving the health and wellbeing of our tupuna awa also impacted on the health and wellbeing of the kaitiaki and those who interact with PRC
He oranga wai, he oranga whakapapa: Critical change in the health of the awa through Kaupapa Maori-led Kaitiakitanga practices
After generations of harmful
exploitative environmental practices
that have resulted from large scale
land confiscations by the Crown (Baker,
2013; Waitangi Tribunal, 2011), the health
of our awa in the Waikato has substantially
deteriorated. Ngāti Maniapoto kaumātua
indicate that the mauri of the awa is directly
related to the oranga of the iwi. Ko te wai
te toto o te whenua, water is the blood of
the land. The land is the mauri of the
people, keeps the people alive. If the water
goes bad, the land goes… bad, the people
die. (Iwi representative, Parsons, Fisher, &
Crease, 2021). As tangata whenua, our
waterways are interconnected with our
oranga in a multiplicity of ways. Pūniu River
Care Inc. (PRC) is an incorporated society
that is contributing to the restoration of the
Pūniu awa. During the time that this report
was written, the commercial arm of the
organisation was still in the development
phase. Therefore, this review has not
explored the commercial aspects that PRC
has since developed. This study explores
some of PRC’s practices with the aim of
demonstrating how this kaupapa Māori-led
organisation has been successful in
improving the health of the awa, and
achieving the cultural aspirations of the
organisation, which include supporting the
wellbeing of the marae and hapū that PRC
are derived from