Funding for Hokianga Harbour project
Efforts to improve the water quality of the Hokianga Harbour have received a $100,000 boost from the government’s Te Pu¯naha Hihiko: Vision Ma¯tauranga Capability Fund.
The fund, administered by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, invests in programmes that help Ma¯ori development to benefit New Zealand.
The grant was awarded to GNS Science and its Far North iwi partner, Te Rarawa Anga Mua, the second GNS Science Ma¯ori development project to receive funding in this year’s round.
GNS Science staff will work with Te Rarawa Anga Mua to help manage and restore parts of the harbour, where human activity has resulted in species loss, poor water quality and damaging siltation. Wendy Henwood (Te Rarawa Anga Mua) said 28 marae link to the harbour and its estuaries, and Hokianga communities wanted to restore the harbour’s mauri (life force or essence).
The project aligned well with the goal of supporting the development of wha¯nau, hapu¯ and iwi with a focus on environmental, social, economic and cultural wellbeing.
“For us, the health of the people cannot be separated from the health of the whenua and its waterways. Hapu¯ relationships with the land and sea are major drivers to do something,” Ms Henwood said. “We are excited about this collaboration, which will promote interest in science and research of the Hokianga Harbour via the history gleaned from the sediment cores and ma¯tauranga Ma¯ori.”
It was also important that the project linked with and supported the Te Rarawa “Noho Taiao” approach to learning through local environments.
GNS Science project coleader Kyle Bland said scientists would develop environmental baselines for Hokianga-nui-aKupe and determine what was driving sediment changes in the Harbour.
GNS Science would provide equipment and expertise to enable the iwi to collect, process and analyse sediment cores to document and evaluate environmental change.
The project is expected to get under way in spring or early summer with a multi-day hui in the Hokianga, where GNS Science staff and Te Rarawa Anga Mua will discuss the project and map out its various components. Dr Bland said GNS Science would be guided by iwi for location of the sites for core sampling.
The cores would be taken to Wellington for analysis at GNS Science’s laboratory facilities, with scientists dating the various layers and profiling their chemical and physical properties.
Representatives from Te Rarawa Anga Mua would travel to Wellington to participate in the analysis and gain experience in scientific methods, which would help to develop ongoing skills and increase the level of interest in science within the iwi.
Dr Bland said cores were like a tape recorder of Earth’s history.
“They will reveal the type of vegetation in the Hokianga region, and how it has changed over the centuries,” he said.
“Scientists will be looking for the make-up of species, the rate of sediment input, and any abrupt changes. The cores will also reveal the diversity of marine life and how it has changed.
The long-term goal was to use the success of the project to secure funding for a larger research undertaking that would build a more comprehensive and broader-scale picture of sedimentation in the harbour.