Te Hoiere is the name of the ancestral waka of Ngāti Kuia captained by our ancestor Matua Hautere and guided by our Kaitiaki Taniwha (Spiritual guardian) Kaikaiawaroro that first traveled to this region. Through the process of taunahanaha whenua (the traditional place naming practice by ancestors), the sound and flow of the river, following the journey of our ancestor, were named after our waka “Te Hoiere”.
Te Hoiere catchment is a diverse landscape beginning in mountainous headwaters and stretching out to the sea, a drowned river system that now makes up Te Hoiere/Pelorus Sound. It is a unique and special place that has been subject to land use pressures of farming and forestry. So the Te Hoiere catchment restoration project was initiated to look after the whole catchment from the mountains to the sea. Ngāti Kuia, in partnership with Rangitāne o Wairau, Marlborough District Council, Department of Conservation, local community & industry, acknowledge the community of Te Hoiere as the custodians of their landscapes, and are working together to identify community aspirations for the future of the catchment and implement actions to acheive those aspirations.
To assess the effectiveness of restoration and mitigation actions, Ngāti Kuia are developing a cultural monitoring framework, informed by mātauranga (Māori knowledge) and values of Ngāti Kuia. In this presentation, we share our journey and introduce the cultural monitoring tool Ngāti Kuia will use to assess the state of the mauri (wellbeing/life force) of freshwater in Te Hoiere. The tool utilises mātauranga and science methods together to track how mauri is changing over time.