Kaitiaki Wai

Here are some examples of kaitiaki doing great things in Te Tai Tokerau and beyond.

Millan Ruka - Kaitiaki mo ngā awa (YouTube Link)
Hona Edwards - Ngā Kaitiaki o Ngā Wai Maōri (YouTube Link)
Dr Charles Royal and Celia Witehira - Te Kawa Waiora Project (YouTube Link)
Sheila Taylor, Steve Johnson, Ari Carrigton and Alyssa Thomas - Māori Freshwater Fisheries Conference (YouTube Link)
Te Rarawa - Me He Wai (YouTube Link)

Water quality monitoring

Here are a range of tools drawn from mātauranga and Western science for monitoring water quality. text themes, go to Site Styles.

Protecting Wai

There is a lot of mahi happening to protect waterways, while at the same time practices that degrade wai continue.

Wai StoryMaps

StoryMaps are powerful way to tell our stories. Read more about them here. Here are some examples.

Other perspectices

This Greenpeace article includes a timeline of the development of Te Mana o Te Wai.

The concept of ‘te mana o te wai’ recognises the power and significance of water to all life, its life force, the integrity of a river. Te Mana o Te Wai recognises and aims to protect the mauri, the life force of water. It recognises the river or spring has a right to be, for its own sake.

It also links to an excellent StoryMap Navigating our freshwater environment by the Ministry for the Environment.

The Northern Wairoa

Te Hoiere Catchment enhancement
plan (South Island)

Kaitiaki perspectives

The 2022 report Voices of Nga Wai Māori ki Te Tai Tokerau: A Case Study Report was prepared by the Kaitiaki Collective for the Tangata Whenua Water Advisory Group and Northland Regional Council.

The case studies are about water bodies in the locations identified above.

Here is a summarised edit of the 10 recommendations from the report.

Engagement

Partner and engage with mana whenua early, respectfully and meaningfully.
Encourage consent holders to build better relationships with local mana whenua.

Capacity building and development

Create a dedicated “bridging rōpū".
Co-design, resource and support the implementation of a kaitiaki training programme.

Resource management processes

Removing barriers and encouraging mana whenua groups to exercise transfer of powers.
Create a dedicated fund for resourcing kaitiaki groups to work better within the RMA.
Notified, limited notification and non-notified assignment to resource consents pertaining to water bodies require a te Ao Māori lens.
Reduce resource consent time periods (to no longer than 15 years)

Foundations

Give effect to Te Mana o te Wai, He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Protect tangata whenua water sources to enable the use by marae, papakāinga and Māori landowners.

Donna Flavell Chief Executive of Te Whakakitenga o Waikato Inc, the iwi organisation for Waikato-Tainui speaks to the complexities of Te Mana o te Wai.

Te Mana o te Wai

Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au

Te Mana o te Wai honours the value of water for itself. Embedded in Te Mana o te Wai is a hierarchy that first prioritises the health of water bodies and freshwater and ecosystems. Next comes the health needs of people, followed by social, economic and cultural well-being.

Te Mana o te Wai was incorporated into the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management in 2014 by the fifth National Government. Governments may tinker with it, but the document remains valid whatever its legal status. Access the 2023 version here.

Millan Ruka was one of 11 people leading the development of Te mana o te wai. Toward the end of this video he reflects on that process.

At the time of writing, the coalition goverment is in the process of messing with the National Policy Statement.

Wai ora

Concerns about the negative impacts of sediments, nutrients and other pollutants have prompted people to protect streams with riparian planting, and where stock is present, installing fencing. Some do this voluntarily, others are compelled.

Riparian plantings reduce the amount of sediment and phosphate into waterways, but the reduction of nitrogen is complex. In addition to riparian planting, ideally farmers will adopt practices that remove the need to apply synthetic forms of nitrogen.

Impressive areas of riparian planting are happening throughout the country.

In 2018 Radio NZ reported that 98.4% of Taranaki’s farmers had riparian plans with the intended completion date of 2020.

In its 2023 Annual Report Kaipara Moana Remediation reported 374 kms of fencing completed, 242 sediment reduction plans and close to a million native plants either in the ground or contracted to plant.

This video features the Waimā Waitai Waiora partnership project with diverse examples of riparian planting from landowners.
Aquifers are a bit of a mystery, and industrial agriculture treats them like credit cards rather than bank accounts. The Ogallala Aquifer is the largest aquifer in North America. This video shows how industrial agriculture draws on water that might be hundreds of thousands of years old.

We can learn a lot from people living in desertified or semi-arid lands as they are much more impacted by water shortages than we are. However we can not be complacent.

As horticulture intensifies aquifers are being depleted faster than they are recharging.

Our dune lakes are unique and fragile ecosystems that are often fed from underground sources. Why was the level of the Kai Iwi Lakes so low i early 2024 after such abundant rainfall the year before?

As aquifers deplete, sea water is able to infiltrate coastal freshwater aquifers.

Understanding the capacity of the aquifer helps us to know what a sustainable take is. With increasing hectares of avocados planted on the Te Aupōuri Peninsula, community concern has been addressed by the NRC. In 2022 it commissioned a major study of the aquifer with ground based, and aerial monitoring. To date there is no published result.

This 2020 study from Wilson Water & Land Advisory (WWLA) is confident that "the total level of proposed allocation, including current consents, represents only 6% of annual recharge and approximately 0.5% of the water stored in the aquifer".

While quantifying the volume of water, and inflows and outflows is valuable. There is also a place for cultural health indicators. Other land use on the peninsula is relevant. Many suspect that pines have a negative impact on the hydrology. The streams that flowed over Te Oneroa-a-Tōhe are not as abundant as they were and this has an impact on toheroa populations.
Following European settlement, the Northland Region of New Zealand has experienced a significant loss of its wetlands. Approximately 90% of the original wetlands in New Zealand have been lost since European settlement began in the mid-19th century. This pattern is consistent across various regions, including Northland. The destruction of wetlands continues. Efforts to protect and restore remaining wetlands are ongoing, but the extent of wetland loss highlights the need for continued conservation efforts.

Only tiny fragments of native forest remain from the Hikurangi Wairepo. The removal of the native vegetation that create wetlands as "kidneys" of the land is part of the reason that 700,000 tonnes of sediment flow into the Kaipara Harbour every year.

In 2011 the NRC commissioned a report to identify the top wetlands. Here are the types of wetlands with the wetland identified as top-ranked.

Open water (Lacustrine) Lake Ōmāpere and environs

Bog - Kaimaumau/Motutangi Wetland

Fen - none identified

Pakihi and gumland - Lake Ohia, Karikari Peninsula

Ephemeral - Sweetwater Station Depressions

Geothermal - Ngawha (a bog)

Saltmarsh (including mangroves) - Five of the top 10 are in the Whangaruru Ecological District.

Swamp - Pouto Dune System

The innovative application of environmental DNA (eDNA) technology has emerged as a powerful tool for ecological monitoring and conservation efforts. eDNA refers to the genetic material shed by organisms into their surrounding environment, such as water or soil, which can be collected and analyzed to detect the presence of various species without the need for direct observation.

This Australian video demonstrates the process.
Traditional monitoring methods often struggle to effectively survey our diverse environments, especially when dealing with elusive species. However, eDNA analysis offers a non-invasive and highly sensitive approach to biodiversity monitoring.

By collecting water samples from rivers, lakes, and oceans, researchers can extract and analyze eDNA to detect the presence of aquatic organisms such as fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. This methodology provides valuable insights into the distribution and abundance of species, aiding in managing freshwater and marine ecosystems. Similar to how levels of COVID-19 infection were indicated by the presence of viral DNA in wastewater, eDNA can be used to monitor for invasive species such as golden clams.

Moreover, eDNA technology is not limited to aquatic environments. It can also be applied to terrestrial habitats, allowing for the detection of elusive species like kiwi or native reptiles through soil or faecal samples. This non-invasive approach minimizes disturbance to fragile ecosystems while providing comprehensive data for conservation planning and management.

In Aotearoa, where the preservation of indigenous biodiversity is a top priority, the use of eDNA holds great promise for informing conservation strategies, monitoring invasive species, and assessing the impact of environmental changes on ecosystem health. As technology advances, eDNA analysis will undoubtedly play an increasingly significant role in safeguarding the unique natural heritage of Aotearoa for future generations.
Dr Leonie Jones (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa) has developed a real-time water quality sensor. She is working with Millan Ruka on a plan to deploy them in waterways in Te Tai Tokerau. The sensors can detect levels of nitrate, phosphate, and sediment. By sending sample results hourly the sensor enables a more complete picture of the pollutants. Factors such as the time of day and the amount and rate of inflow into streams can convey inaccurate data when samples are only taken at for example monthly intervals.

Here is more about Dr Jones's work from Te Ao Māori News and The National Science Challenge.

Image credit: National Science Challenge
Institutions such as government departments and local government are increasingly required to include mātauranga in environmental contexts. The development of cultural health indicators is one way to enable greater harmonisation of Western science and Mātauranga Māori. As the environment exists in diverse settings, so too does mātauranga find unique expressions in any rohe. This can be expressed in Iwi Hapū Environmental Management Plans.

As mātauranga is situated in the local context, so are the CHIs and these are determined by the mana whenua, not the institutions. These are much more holistic than conventional monitoring where technicians might come to an area, gather samples and then take them away for analysis.

As an example, Manaaki Whenua developed the Ngāti Hauā Wetland Mauri Framework alongside the hapū. The four dimensions of the framework included the health of the taiao, the wai, mahinga kai, and the tangata.

Patuharakeke outline their cultural framework that guides their response to resource management issues in their Hapū Enviromental Management Plan. The 2014 edition outlines the factors that shape their response (pages 12 and 13).

A body of knowledge about our land, water and resources built over many generations;

An holistic worldview that sees people in a familial and symbiotic relationship with the other manifestations of nature around them rather than in domination of it;

The desire to protect key cultural values and practices such as mauri, tikanga, rahui and waahi tapu that are central to our identity, sense of place and cultural well-being; and

An historical context where the dispossession of land that followed colonial settlement and Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the confiscation of Poupouwhenua and acquisition of Ruakaka, Mata and Waipu via imperfect purchases had a profound effect on the spiritual, cultural and traditional relationship between Patuharakeke and the environment. As the physical landscape changed, so did the ability of tangata whenua to access and manage the resources upon which they depended.
Conventional tests, with samples of water taken from the same site over time remain useful. An example is the Greenpeace Nitrate Map. This map highlights health threats from elevated nitrate levels in the water. A limitation is the frequency of testing. This screenshot reveals the most elevated level of nitrate in Te Tai Tokerau in the Hikurangi area, but the last sample was from 1996.
The map also reveals “significantly elevated nitrate” levels in the Maungatapere area at 6.98 mg/L. The last sample in this case was 2023.

The Safeswim website and app aggregate monitoring data to identify when water quality is unsafe for swimming. This screenshot was taken from the website on 11 March 2024.