Kaitiakitanga

In 2009 four Taranaki ahu whenua trusts came together to form one large farm.

Five years later Te Rua O Te Moko Ltd. won the Ahuwhenua Trophy for excellence in dairy farming.

They now milk 500 cows on 175 hectares and are training uri for the next stage of the journey.

Daisy Noble: My name’s Daisy. I am one of the trustees of one of the four blocks of the farming venture that we have here.

When the four blocks were collectively pulled together, in its own way that is the start of whenua being returned the way it should have been back to a hapū think or a hapū way of looking at land ownership.

Anne Marie Broughton: We went through quite a lengthy process of developing a vision for Te Rua O Te Moko in conjunction with the owners. There were some key owners that took part in that at the time.

And then you’ve got to really try and lead them down that whole very, very complex pathway of bringing it all together.

Daisy: Time and understanding what that could mean in the wider context, it just makes you more comfortable and you know that you can create a bigger vision by coming together like that.

Anne Marie: In terms of Tino Rangatiratanga you know we want to be encouraging our people to be governors and managers of their own land.

Dion Maaka: We always look to utilise best practise methods in terms of our waterways, our effluent management etc. I think for our operation kaitiakitanga extends to the people as well.

Kendrin Graham: I’m Kendrin Graham, I’m 18 years old and I’m from Taranaki. I work, well I do land based training. I did leave school when I was 16 turning 17 so I decided to go on the farm.

Since I’m a townie I feel honoured. This farm’s been here for like how long? Like yonks!

Dion: I always look through the owners’ lens when we’re managing, when we’re governing this operation. I would love for our people to be operating this farm, to be the next governors, management etc.  So that’s really kaitiakitanga in its truest form for me.