He Kāinga Taurikura o Tangitū: Treasured coastal environment

“Ka tuwhera a Maungaharuru, ka kati a Tangitū. Ka tuwhera a Tangitū, ka kati a Maungaharuru” 

When the season of Maungaharuru (the mountain) opens, the season of Tangitū (the sea) closes. When the season of Tangitū opens, the season of Maungaharuru closes. 

This hapū based project is helping support coastal hapū and our expression of kaitiakitanga by assessing and accessing high-quality ecosystem data produced by technological tools. 

Mātauranga-a-hapū underpins this project, which is situated within the Tangitū rohe moana (northern Hawke’s Bay) and on a kuku (mussels) reef which is under threat due to anthropogenic pressures and the impacts of fragmented management. 

Our project has four key phases: 

1. Identify attributes, indicators and targets: Wānanga and bring together our mātauranga-a-hapū to describe the state and pressures on the kuku reef. 
2. Identify new tools and technologies to complement mātauranga-a-hapū: Wānanga to learn about and assess different leading-edge technologies.  This will inform a long-term plan to establish quality ecological information about the kuku reef, ongoing coastal monitoring and process that can weave new data into our cultural assessments. 
3. Evaluate technology: We will test a technology for its effectiveness and cultural acceptability, eg Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV), environmental DNA (eDNA). 
4. Develop a Cultural Ecological Assessment Framework and adaptive management: We will develop a framework to monitor the kuku reef and align with our ki uta ki tai freshwater cultural assessments and restoration projects. 

This project will benefit coastal hapū kaitiakitanga alongside an ecosystem-based management approach in a practical and accessible manner.