Tōtara planted to honour one of the founders of Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust

Keri and Hine Thompson with a photo of the late tumuaki, Anaru Thompson. Photo / Supplied

A tōtara was planted to honour the late tumuaki (leader), Anaru Thompson, at a celebration of the council’s project with Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust to restore the Karāpiro and Mangaonua catchments.

Anaru, who was the kingmaker for 20 years and one of the founders of Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust, died in June last year.

His widow, Hine Thompson, in attending her “first community planting” the same week as her husband’s unveiling, brought along a photograph of him to commemorate the completion of the project, which included putting the last 100 trees of a 100,000-tree journey into the ground.

Hine Thompson (left) and Hayley Brunskill cut the cake. Photo / Supplied

Waikato Regional Council and Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust worked together with landowners in the Mangaonua and Karāpiro catchments after getting funding of $637,500 from Te Uru Rākau - New Zealand Forest Service’s One Billion Trees Fund, as part of the Jobs for Nature programme.

Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust CEO Keri Thompson, Anaru’s daughter, said the three-year project had been the start of an incredible journey for the trust, enabling it to ramp up its efforts to restore the mauri of the catchments and help get rangatahi into jobs and reconnect with the land through mātauranga Māori.

Traditionally, the Karāpiro and Mangaonua catchments were used by Ngāti Hauā to connect with other iwi and were abundant kai and rongoa gathering areas.

Today, the catchments are predominantly farmland and highly modified, delivering high loads of sediment to the Waikato River. They are priority areas for work identified in the Waikato and Waipā Restoration Strategy to improve the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River.

For the project, the council worked with landowners to retire wetlands and seeps, riparian margins and erodible hill country for plantings to reduce the sediment and nutrient loading to streams and increase and enhance local fish habitat. Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust, which eco-sources seeds, grew the plants and undertook the plantings.

Altogether, more than 111,000 native plants were planted, 67 hectares of land were retired, and 23.5 kilometres of new fencing was constructed. In-stream fish habitat was also created as part of river erosion control works.

Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust staff on the Brunskill property at a site they planted in 2021. Photo / Supplied

The project started and ended on the 187-hectare property belonging to fifth-generation farmers Stephen and Hayley Brunskill.

“Not only did this project bring over 100,000 plants but we got to upgrade our nursery, which looks new and is amazing, and enable our people to become skilled in chainsawing and first aid. Our kaumātua also gets paid for the tikanga mahi that we do.

“We grew with Waikato Regional Council, and we have delivered on time and on point. Without the support of the council, it would have been a lot harder.”

For Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust, which first set up a nursery in 2013 with funding help from the regional council, riparian planting was a way to reconnect whānau to the land, nurturing kaitiakitanga practices and future-proofing mātauranga Māori for generations to come.

Hayley said in a statement it was “really neat” being able to do their own thing on the property now, and in the last three years that has included planting 25,000 plants and retiring about 20 hectares of land.

“We do it to help protect the waterways, but it’s not really productive land anyway. The cows just break it apart and it looks really nice when it all grows up.”

Waikato regional councillor and neighbour Stu Kneebone, who attended the celebration, said it was great to see other locals really passionate about restoring the health of our catchments.

Helen Somerville, manager grant and contract management, Te Uru Rākau - New Zealand Forest Service, said in a statement the restoration project was a perfect example of what could be achieved when we work together.

“It’s great to see iwi, council and landowners all working together towards a common goal: better outcomes for our environment and our communities.”