News

Tuna surveying

By Tegan Ramage

The tauira, along with facilitator Matt Dale, set hīnaki in multiple areas stretching from the Mataura Mātaitai through to Wyndham and Edendale, where they caught tuna to investigate. The tauira said that they caught both Perch and Tuna on the day.Kaloni Taylor releasing tuna after surveying.

There were two separate buckets, one was a mix of water and clove oil, which was used to sedate the tuna, so they were easier to handle.

The tauira estimated that they had caught, measured, and weighed around 300 tuna.

Josh Aitkens said that for the larger tuna, two people are required, one to support its head and the other person to support its spine. After the tuna were weighed and measured, they were then placed into a second bucket, where they were able to readjust before releasing.

In terms of water safety, Sentre Harden shared that they were to walk up stream and then based on your size and weight would determine how a person would cross. Sentre shared that he was to walk across the river on a diagonal, in comparison to Kaloni Taylor who shared that he felt like he had an advantage, because based on his size he was able to go straight across the river, set the hīnaki and retrieve the hīnaki first in comparison to the others in the group.

The tauira were taught pawhara, known as the cleaning and preparing of tuna, and Vincent Leith directed this process.

Kaloni Taylor said that he enjoyed setting the hīnaki and the highlight for all the tauira present was eating them (tuna).

Josh Aitkens shared that a highlight for him was catching the biggest tuna on the day.

Posted: 10 May 2022

Minister Jackson visits Hokonui Rūnanga

By Tegan Ramage (Hokonui Rūnanga)

On Wednesday 27 April 2022, we were very lucky to have the Minister for Māori Development Willie Jackson join us at the Hokonui Rūnanga with his amazing Te Puni Kōkiri team.Group photo of tauira, staff, Minister Willie Jackson, Dr Liz Craig, and Te Puni Kōkiri colleagues.Abby-Lee Evans gave a presentation about the Kaitiaki Whenua programme.

During their visit, the Hokonui Rūnanga Taiao team presented the different projects happening in partnership with Toitῡ te Whenua (Land Information New Zealand) and other funders. This presentation spoke to capacity building, the Hokonui Hill biodiversity kaupapa, the Kaitiaki Whenua programme and seed collection.

Abby-Lee Evans presented the outcomes and future aspirations for the tauira of the Kaitiaki Whenua programme, while sharing experiences that would not only benefit the tauira educationally, but also their wellbeing and individual growth.

Tauira (Raniera Smyth) sharing experiences about the Kaitiaki Taiao Tauira Programme.

This was then reinforced by Raniera Smyth who spoke about his experiences in the programme. He shared his experiences as the team leader and he believed that the programme was helping him to develop necessary skills for work and for them individually. He continued to share how everyone was like whānau and he felt very supported, by his peers and facilitators. His experiences have helped him to grow and develop a definite pathway for himself.

Riki Parata gave an overview of projects within Te Taiao Department.

Other presenters for the evening were Riki Parata, who spoke to the other important environmental projects while Ivan Hodgetts and Terry Nicholas spoke to the Murihiku Regeneration Projects which involve developing educational programmes to encourage positive transitions for rangatahi from education into work or into higher educational settings. Terry Nicholas spoke to the six key priorities of the project and what this will look like for iwi, including up to date progress and where to next.

Ivan Hodgetts spoke to the education and training Murihiku Regeneration projects.

The evening finished in the dining room with kai and kōrero about projects happening in and around Hokonui. It was great to hear the conversations of our tauira with the Minister and his colleagues about their journey and where they hope to be when they graduate from the programme. We are so very proud of all the tauira who were there and shared their experiences and thank you to all the staff, Minister Jackson and colleagues for being a part of such awesome kōrero.Terry Nicholas spoke to the Murihiku Regeneration projects - providing a more general overview.

Posted: 4 May 2022

Minister Jackson visits Hokonui Rūnanga

By Tegan Ramage

On Wednesday 27 April, we were very lucky to have the Minister for Māori Development Willie Jackson join us at the Hokonui Rūnanga with his amazing Te Puni Kōkiri team.

Group photo of tauira, staff, Minister Willie Jackson, Dr Liz Craig, and Te Puni Kōkiri colleagues.

During their visit, the Hokonui Rūnanga Taiao team presented the different projects happening in partnership with Toitῡ te Whenua (Land Information New Zealand) and other funders. This presentation spoke to capacity building, the Hokonui Hill biodiversity kaupapa, the Kaitiaki Whenua programme and seed collection.

Abby-Lee Evans presented the outcomes and future aspirations for the tauira of the Kaitiaki Whenua programme, while sharing experiences that would not only benefit the tauira Presentation from Abby-Lee Evans about the Kaitiaki Whenua project.educationally, but also their wellbeing and individual growth. This was then reinforced by Raniera Smyth who spoke about his experiences in the programme. He shared his experiences as the team leader and he believed that the programme was helping him to develop necessary skills for work and for them individually. He continued to share how everyone was like whānau and he felt very supported, by his peers and facilitators. His experiences have helped him to grow and develop a definite pathway for himself.

Other presenters for the evening were Riki Parata, who spoke to the other important environmental projects while Ivan Hodgetts and Terry Nicholas spoke to the Murihiku Regeneration Riki Parata gave an overview of all other projects within Te Taiao Department.Projects which involve developing educational programmes to encourage positive transitions for rangatahi from education into work or into higher educational settings. Terry Nicholas spoke to the six key priorities of the project and what this will look like for iwi, including up to date progress and where to next.

The evening finished in the dining room with kai and kōrero about projects happening in and around Hokonui. It was great to hear the conversations of our tauira with the Minister and his colleagues about their journey and where they hope to be when they graduate from the programme. We are so very proud of all the tauira who were there and shared their experiences and thank you to all the staff, Minister Jackson and colleagues for being a part of such awesome kōrero.

Posted: 4 May 2022

Murihiku and Aotearoa energy leaders meet to develop Renewable Energy Plan

On 28 April 2022, Murihiku Regeneration hosted a half day workshop at the Great South offices - with local, regional and national energy leaders to continue with the process of developing a Renewable Energy Work Plan that can be presented to government and also the Murihiku Hapū later in 2022. Murihiku Regeneration has responsibility for both the Clean Energy and Worker Transitions workstreams.Attendees at the Clean Energy workshop on Thursday 28 April.

Murihiku Regeneration was also well represented at the workshop by Terry Nicholas (Hokonui Rūnanga) and Dion Williams (Te Rūnaka o Awarua).

From an Iwi perspective, Dion Williams was very keen to ensure, ”that any actions recommended supported social infrastructure, with good community and whanau buy-in to support the introduction of new energy opportunities like green hydrogen”.

The purpose of the working group is to identify actionable new industries, identify opportunities around new energy generation and enable smaller supporting industries and amplifying technologies for the region that can be implemented in the near term.

During the workshop – presentations from expert members of the group – including Ross Copland (CEO NZ Infrastructure Commission), Dr Regina Eisert (Marine Energy), Anna Kominik (Edmund Hilary Fellowship) and Steve Canny (Great South) provided context around how they thought the Murihiku-Southland renewable energy ecosystem the potential goals, framework and priority projects should be considered.

Independent Chair, Eric Roy said, “I felt the group provided some really useful insights and contributions that need to be further developed to make them credible, actionable and support the region to embrace renewable energy and the opportunities it will bring to the whole community”.

The group is due to report back into the Just Transitions programme in late June, and to provide a final report in late August 2022.

Posted: 3 May 2022

Combined Murihiku Rūnaka Hui last Saturday

On Saturday 9 April, Hokonui Rūnanga hosted the second combined Murihiku Rūnaka Hui for 2022. These hui are an opportunity for rūnaka members to come together to discuss issues, provide updates and provide feedback on topics relevant to Murihiku and Ngāi Tahu more generally.

Terry Nicholas (Hokonui Rūnanga Manager) addressing the Combined Murihiku Rūnaka Hui on Saturday.

Guest speakers on Saturday included Arihia Bennett (Chief Executive Officer of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu) and David Perenara-O’Connell, who gave an update on the establishment of the Māori Health Authority and Iwi-Māori Partnership Boards.

Cindy Robinson (Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu) then followed with an overview of the RMA reforms and the three replacement pieces of legislation. Her role is to bring Ngāi Tahu perspectives to the forefront of resource management planning, including endeavouring to have the Ngāi Tahu takiwā boundary recognized as the geographical boundary for all governance and decision-making bodies.

The Future for Local Government review was presented by Emma Forrest, a member of the Strategy and Influence team at Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. The purpose of this review is to: Identify how the system of local democracy and governance needs to evolve over the next 30 years to improve the wellbeing of New Zealand communities and the environment, and actively embody the Treaty partnership. Emma will be seeking feedback from papatipu rūnanga over coming weeks.

Hui participants were then given an update on the Southland Just Transition Aquaculture Workstream by workstream lead Aimee Kaio. Aimee highlighted the potential scale of this new industry and the importance of Iwi leading in this space. The issue of infrastructure needs for the region more generally also arose from this korero.

Jacqui Caine, Tane Davis and Tā Tipene O’Regan then gave a presentation about Whenua Hou and the current limitations experienced by Ngāi Tahu around legal title, access, governance and management of the island. They are seeking mandate from papatipu rūnanga to continue to explore vesting of Whenua Hou as an option with the Department of Conservation.

Other agenda items covered on the day included a discussion about the tikanga and kawa of Murihiku Upoko; Tiwai remediation; Rūnanga updates; and an update from Jana Davis, CE of Te Tapu o Tāne.

Comprehensive minutes from the day will be available from your rūnaka office after Easter.

Posted: 14 April 2022