Ko te whenua tō tātou tūrangawaewae. Ko te hononga tēnā ki ō tātou whanaunga, ki ō tātou tīpuna, waihoki ki ngā uri whakaheke.
Whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua.
I ēnei rā, kua haehaea, kua ngaro rānei ō tātou hononga ki te whenua. Kāore te nuinga o tātou i te noho ki runga i ō tātou whenua — kāore hoki pea tātou e tino mōhio ana kei hea pū aua whenua.
He mahi nui tonu te tūhono atu ki ō tātou whenua e rangona anō ai te mahana o te ahikā. Heoi, he hua nui o aua mahi mō te whenua tonu.
Simon Gomez: The connection to the land to me is quite spiritual. If I fly over, about halfway across the straights and I feel like I'm home. If I'm coming on the ferry, the moment we come around that point I'm home.
Dick Ryan: This land gets hold of you and it's just there the whole time, the feeling is there. It leaves you sometimes when you go away from the island but when you come back it returns again so it's very close to our heart.
Ulva Goodwille: There was a lot of trading between Stewart Island, Rakiura, and Australia. This is the 1800's we are talking about. They traded the whale oil, seal oil, seal skins and the logs so these settlers moved in with the Māori wāhine on the neck, you see. So, it was quite a big community then and generations later they are they are still living on the island.
Simon Gomez: And, what we're doing now is trying to restore the land to what it always was rather than what it became after European settlement arrived on the island. We have weed problems, we have issues that we have to try and clean up. We are the largest owner of land on the island after the government and we see it as a responsibility to be wayfinders, to show people how we should look after the land.
Richard Manning: So, the trust over a number of years have spent considerable capital in endeavoring to regenerate and restore the bush. That is an ongoing challenge but we know from our analysis work over a good deal of time that the bush is progressively improving.
The trust have a big picture vision and we recognize that Kiwi are an iconic product or an iconic taonga to New Zealand and to our people. So, we were able to acquire a very long and is well established business and we were very privileged to do that in partnership with a well-respected, highly capable operator in Real Journeys.
So, we foresee that there is an opportunity to extend the business model to other areas of our whenua. We know we've got a lot of Kiwi on the neck but we don't know their behavioural patterns. So, we've employed advisors or researchers to actually monitor a lot of that that process will take time but gradually we've been doing a lot of research around extension of walking tracks and research of other product opportunities. But in saying that, we recognize that we have to find a balance in the business models where there is both the importance of respecting the ownership of the land, respecting the beneficiary's interest and, we can make it economically viable.
Simon Gomez: Every generation has a job to do to preserve and sustain for the next generation. It's our land, it's our taonga, it's our responsibility.
He mea tūhonohono
Mā te tūhono atu ki ō tātou whenua, ka rongo tātou i ngā painga nui tonu. Ki te tū tātou hei kaitiaki o te whenua, ka pātata atu tātou ki ō tātou whanaunga, ā-tinana, ā-wairua hoki. Ka mahara tātou ki te hiranga o te whakapapa me ngā hononga i waenganui i ō tātou tīpuna me ngā uri whakaheke.
Ehara i te mea ka tutuki tēnei mahi i te pō kotahi. Me ngākaunui, me māia hoki e tūhono atu ai tātou ki ō tātou whenua — kia manawanui. Ka koke whakamua tātou, ka whakaawetia ētahi atu o te whānau ki te hoki atu ki te whenua. Mēnā ka mau i a tātou ō tātou whenua, ka mōhio tātou ki ō tātou iwi, waihoki ki ō tātou tūrangawaewae.
He whakapiki oranga
He hononga pūmau i waenganui i te whenua me te hauora. Ka ora te whenua, ka ora hoki te whānau.
Nō te hononga i waenganui i te whenua me te whānau te oranga pūmau me te oranga nui o ngā mātua tīpuna, koia tonu te aronga o ngā hapori o mua.
He tūrangawaewae
He mea nui te tūrangawaewae ki a tātou te Māori. Waihoki e whai pānga ana tērā kaupapa ki ngā hononga ā-whakapapa ki ō tātou whenua.
Ka takahia e koe ngā whenua o ō tīpuna, ka mārō ake ai tō hononga ki a koe anō. Ka tūhono atu koe ki tō whakapapa, ka mārama koe ki a koe anō, waihoki ki tō pūtakenga mai.
Ka whāngaia tātou e te whenua
Ka whāngaia tātou e te whenua, arā, ka whāngaia ā-tinana ki ngā hua o te whenua, ka whāngaia hoki te ngākau i te aroha o te whānau nō rātou anō aua whenua, ka whāngaia hoki te wairua e te mauri o te whenua.
Mēnā he nui te ora o te whenua, tērā pea, ka puta mai he hua moni i taua whenua. Ehara i te mea ka puta mai he moni i ngā whenua katoa, heoi, ka taea e ētahi — me he pai ngā whakahaere, he ngākaunui hoki ō ngā tāngata.
Kei a tātou anō te mana whakahaere
He iti noa te whenua Māori o Aotearoa ināianei, me kaha tātou ki te tiaki i ēnei waihotanga iho. I konei te whenua i mua i a tātou, ka tū tonu te whenua i tō tātou ngarohanga atu, waihoki inā kē ōna painga mō tātou te tangata.
