Primary industries with a focus on the Marine Sector
Ōpōtiki College, Te Kura o Kutarere School and Te Kura o Te Whānau-a-Apanui joined us for the Ōpōtiki Discovery Tour at Te Ahiaua Reserve.
This discovery tour was focussed on our natural waterways and showcasing the different roles our people play in the protection and conservation of these spaces for future generations.
Rangatahi heard from a range of experts including:
Our speakers shared their journeys, experiences and passion that drives their mahi. The key thing that stood out was all 4 Kaimahi had whakapapa links back to this rohe and spoke about how beautiful it was to work on projects where they could help their taiao and moana.
Our experts ran a series of interactive workshops to give rangatahi a real insight into the mahi they do and learn more about why they do what they do. One of the activities involved rangatahi surveying the estuary. Rangatahi went out in groups to dig 50cmx50cm section and sifted through their findings. Each group identified what they had and learnt about what their findings told them about the health of the estuary.
In other activities rangatahi learnt about invasive and native species and learning about ‘tohu’ or natural signs. The "Tohu o te wā" workshop run by Gina Mohi took rangatahi into a ‘deep dive’ into how Mātauranga Māori can be used to navigate through our world. She discussed how it helped our tupuna to use signs from our taiao to tell us when to seek kai moana, when to plant and harvest and how to look for signs indicating an area was in bad health. Rangatahi also discussed some of the signs they already knew and Gina helped to instil in them that what they are talking about is science.
