Curious Minds: Mai te Awa ki te Moana to help with Ōhawe restoration

The Mai te Awa ki te Moana project has the goal of learning more about Ōhawe with the help of mātauranga. Photo/ Supplied

A Curious Minds project will be the first step to restoring rockpools and reefs around Ōhawe in South Taranaki.

Mai te Awa ki te Moana is one of six Curious Minds projects announced by Venture Taranaki and funded through the Curious Minds Taranaki programme.

The programme is led by Venture Taranaki and funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

Volunteer co-ordinator Alison Cole says the project involves Ōkahu-Inuawai me ētehi atu hapū (the local subtribe) using their local knowledge and understanding to better understand and care for the takutai moana (foreshore and seabed) in the Ōhawe area.

"The project was inspired by living at Ōhawe and loving the ocean. I surf around the Taranaki coast and I do recreational scuba diving and marine observation."

She says an incident last year was one of the reasons the project began.

"I walked my dog on the beach and she was playing in the ocean. She got really sick and it turned out the water had high toxicity due to a spill. There was also tension along the coast with the gathering of shellfish, which led to the rāhui (ban)."

Alison says she spoke to other community groups, which encouraged her to put together a research proposal.

"I spoke to my hapū chair John Hooker and we knew we needed the mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) aspect."

For the project, the hapū will work with mātauranga Māori science expert Professor Kura Paul-Burke of the University of Waikato to build a methodology for monitoring significant coastal sites.

She says the local knowledge of Ōhawe is a taonga (treasure), and the aim of the project is to write a report to help other people learn about the methodology of mātauranga and how they can apply that to their regions.

"We want to build more information for the hapū so they can treasure the taonga, but we want to share how to gain that information with others so they can apply it to learning about their coast. We want to look at the methodology and how that can be shared with the hapū in mind."

Alison says the project will provide baseline information and is the first step to the ultimate goal of encouraging the restoration of rockpools and reefs around Ōhawe.

"The long-term goal is to encourage the restoration of rockpools and reefs around Ōhawe but we have a lot of steps to take before we reach that point."