Mauri Compass
Mauri Compass
In the case of the Urenui awa, contamination is from stormwater contaminated with human sewage entering the estuary from the Urenui Township. We are continuing to push for improvements in water quality and for ongoing monitoring with both scientific and Mauri Compass measurements, but it may take some time to fully restore both awa given their current state.
It has been a long journey for us finding something that felt right when it comes to measuring and monitoring cultural health. With the help of Ian Ruru and his two sons Manawa and Riaki, we have managed to complete a full ‘mauri’ assessment of two of our awa; Mimitangiatua and Urenui.
The results of the assessment were not as great as we expected but at least now we have some solid baseline data we can build on in the future and a fair idea about where we need to go from here.
Overall, the most important results taken into consideration when carrying out this assessment were historical state versus current state which gave us a good indication on just how far we need to go… as shown by the Mauri Dashboard below and as you can see – it’s a long way.
Some of the information gathered during the assessment included riparian margins, activities on the awa (past and present), accessibility for mana whenua (the ability to connect with our awa), water quality(clarity, pH, conductivity, temperature etc),catchment deforestation levels, modifications to waterways(draining of swamps, diversions etc), mahinga kai capabilities, and health of taonga species. For this assessment we used tuna as our taonga species.
The process included setting two hīnaki at four sites on each awa (unbaited) and measuring and counting the tuna at each site. We dissected one tuna from each site to inspect the health and condition of the tuna. Inthe future we will add species to the process, we have a piharau project in the pipelines currently and would like to follow that up with inanga.
The project was a huge success and we now have a fully comprehensive and up-to-date report on the two awa which is available from the Ngāti Mutunga Website. Onaero is the next awa where we will carry out this mahi. The reason we chose Mimitangiatua and Urenui for the first round is because of the known harmful activities happening up and down these awa.
