Digging in

Yesterday we dropped the oioi (jointed wire rush) plants in strategic piles around South Arm of Te Hakapupu’s estuary - today we started planting them into the ‘glasswort’ (Sarcocornia quinqueflora)  beds that make up much of the ‘saltmarsh meadow’ around the edge of the estuary.  Some were also planted into the muddy estuary sediments, and others alongside (and in) a brackish freshwater stream that empties into the estuary. This photo is of Bernard Mullane digging the oioi in. He is one of the staff from the local marae (Māori community meeting complex) who was drafted in for the planting day.

I am particularly delighted to be working with the local Māori community for this project.  Community-led conservation initiatives are healing processes, as much about reconnecting with neighbours as about healing our local environment.  But it is particularly important for me as a ‘Pākehā’ (European) New Zealander to honour the Treaty of Waitangi, our founding agreement to share Aotearoa New Zealand with Māori.  Failure of the crown to honour the promises made to Māori in the Treaty has led to much friction and ongoing tussles in New Zealand, so much of the dialogue about the Treaty asserts that it is something our collective New Zealand society and government must put right for Māori in particular.  For me, that’s true.  But honouring the Treaty is also something I want and need to do for myself and my children. The Treaty of Waitangi is a tremendous gift to me – a promise that I can live here in a southern paradise too. If they honour the Treaty of Waitangi, any immigrant can become “native to this place” and forge their family’s future here.

So in one way I will digging in rushes over the next weeks, in another I will been digging in as a “Tangata Tiriti” (Treaty person) in my new place in the world.