Tauranga teen Rangipo Takuira-Mita, 18. Photo / George Novak
Tauranga teen Rangipo Takuira-Mita, 18. Photo / George Novak
"I am all here for the taiao, for our environment."
That's what is driving the work of Tauranga teenager Rangipo Ngaire Takuira-Mita (Te Arawa, Te Rarawa Kaiwhare, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Maniapoto) who has been nationally recognised for her work helping to revive water quality.
The 18-year-old is one of 10semifinalists for the University of Canterbury Young New Zealander of the Year. She is joined by New Zealand musician Stan Walker who lived in Tauranga as a child.
Meanwhile, Tauranga woman Erin ONeill has been nominated as a semifinalist in the senior category for helping families with loved ones facing substance abuse.
Takuira-Mita is part of a collective of "rangatahi led innovators" - known as Te Pu-a-Nga Maara - who develop environmental initiatives using a mātauranga Māori lens.
The group is made up of rangatahi (young people) from three marae in south Auckland, where Taukuira-Mita grew up.
She has held workshops throughout New Zealand sharing ancestral approaches to care for waterways.
A recent success for the group has been the creation and distribution of affordable water quality testing kits to help communities identify issues in their local awa.
Her interest in water quality restoration came about after discovering her local awa - Puhinui Stream - was one of the most polluted in south Auckland.
The collective, which formed in 2017, was eager to revive the water back to its natural state but could not access water testing kits due to price.
"We couldn't afford them because they were like over five grand. We decided to come up with something cheap, affordable and portable for everyone."
This work has helped gift 300 kits to marae and schools in New Zealand, Tonga and Italy.
Rangipo Takuira-Mita has been nominated as a semifinalist for the University of Canterbury Young New Zealander of the Year. Photo / George Novak
"We would gift Te Kete Waiora out to schools like ours in the hopes they adopt a stream. At the moment our goal is finally coming true."
But for Takuira-Mita, her work was about more than just water quality.
"Honestly I am all here for the taiao, for our environment," she said.
"I have found a real deep passion in reviving rangi, whenua and moana. What impacts on the sky, impacts on the whenua, what impacts on the whenua, impacts on the water.
"And what impacts on all three of those is gonna impact on us as humans. If those three things aren't healthy, well humans you ain't got a chance to survive."
She believed scientists were just starting to turn to indigenous knowledge to help improve environmental outcomes despite it existing for many years.
"The scientists now, they are like only just clicking to the science our tupuna have already established. It has been there for years and years, but because it is not in a Pākehā structure, they never believed it.
"They finally want to give indigenous knowledge a chance."
Her message to younger generations is a quote she lives by to help guide her work: "Mātauranga Māori is not one thing but it is all things."
"I really stick to that. Mātauranga Māori is many things. It is the way I stand as a Māori."
Tauranga woman Erin ONeill runs Brave Hearts NZ - Manawa Kaha Aotearoa - a support network for whānau and friends with a loved one facing addiction. Photo / John Borren
Erin ONeill has been nominated as a semifinalist for Ryman Healthcare Senior New Zealander of the Year.
The Tauranga woman was being acknowledged for her work founding Brave Hearts NZ - a support group for families with a loved one dealing with substance use.
A statement from the awards said: "Erin's tenacity has provided many parents and families with the help they've needed to get their family member into recovery and to move towards the ultimate goal of living addiction free."
Beginning life in Tauranga with 60 members, Brave Hearts was now hosting face to face and online support meetings nationwide and has helped hundreds of families.
Semifinalists will be considered for the next round of judging when they will be reduced to three finalists, which will be announced in February.
The Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards gala dinner in Auckland will follow in March.
Bay of Plenty regional councillor Lyall Thurston, Bay epidemiologist Michael Baker, Rotorua-born Dame Valerie Adams, Tokyo Olympic gold medallist and Bay of Plenty woman Lisa Carrington and East Coast MP Kiri Allan are among those who have been nominated for Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year.
