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Ko te whakakotahitanga o Ngai Te Arawa ki te ao whakahaere kaupapa kīrearea te pae tawhiti hai tā te māngai whakahaere kaupapa kīrearea ko Tame Malcolm.
"Mō te pēhi ngārara, pēhi kīrearea pai kē atu mēnā ka kāpuia ngā iwi, e māmā ake ai te mahi, e itiiiti hoki ai te utu, mēnā e mahi tahi ana me tō hoa e kore ai ngā ngārara e hoki mai ki te whenua kura".
Engari ko te tipi hauraro koinā te tino whāinga kia hemo rawa atu ngā kīrearea katoa, me tataku kau engari me whakaae hoki ngā wāhanga huhua ki te tēnei whakaaro ko ngā wāhanga e kōrerongia nei e ahau ko te iwi, ko te kāwanantanga, ko ngā tangata mahi pāmū me ōu rātou hoa hoki"
"Nōku e tamariki ana tēnei aronga ki te nehenehe, ka oti i a hau te kura ka tōtika atu ki te nehenehe, ko taku mahi nō mai, nō mai he whakahaere, he whakatika kīrearea, mātua ko te hāpai i ngā hāpori Māori ki te whakarite mai, ki te rangahau mai me te whakaū i ngā rautaki tiaki whenua ki runga ki ō rātou whenua ake, ka rua kia whakatutukingia tēnei whāinga i runga i te mana o te mātauranga me te tikanga Māori.
"Ka nui taku hiahia ki a puta atu ahau ki te tāhere manu, e hoki ana ngā whakaaro ki ngā tūpuna nō te wā rātou e hainatia ai Te Tiriti o Waitangi i hāinatia ai i runga i te mōhiotanga ka pupuringia e tātou tō tātou rangatiratanga i ngā mea katoa"
"Ka nui taku hiahia ki a eke ai tātou ki te taumata e tāea ai tātou ki te tāhere kererū i tēnei wā o te tau, he āwhinatanga tēnei kia noho iti ai te rahi o ngā kererū tēnā i te wero pokanoa".
Whoi anō e kore e tāea nā te mea, he whati tūre tēnā koroingo nā te tokoiti o ngā kererū. Hei tā anō a Tame, mā tētehi hūnuku nui e whakarauora ai te mātauranga ki te manaaki i te ngāhere.
Ki te nuinga o tātou ko Tame tōna ingoa karanga ko te roanga ake o tōna ingoa ko Thomas Ford Malcolm. He māngai papā kia whakamāhia e tātou te 1080 ki te patu i ngā kīore rā-waho me ngā paihamu.
"Kia huri ai ō tātou kanohi ki ngā ngāhere rangatira ināianei i Rotorua nei, ko Mōkaikaha tētehi, ko Kaharoa anō tētehi me Te Rotoehu, kai reira e whakamāhia ana te 1080 me te pai o ēnā wāhi.
"Ko ngā wāhi e ora kaha nei ngā Kōkako ko ngā whenua i whakamāhia ki te 1080". He uri nō Ngāti Tarawhai, nō Ngāti Pikiao, nō Ngāti Ngāraranui, nō Tapuika me Ngāti Ruanui hoki a Tame me tana hiahia kia kāpuia ai ngā hapū o Te Arawa ki te kaupapa whakahaere kīrearea me tana whakakaha i ngā iwi kia tirohia e rātou ngā paki kōrero, ngā waiata tawhito me ngā kōrero tuku iho hai ārataki i a rātou, i a tātou me tēnei kaupapa momona.
"Ko Te Rotoehu te ūkaipō mō Ngāti Tamateatutahi me Ngāti Kāwiti nā reira e hoki ana ngā taringa ki ngā rongo kōrerotanga a tōku matua tāne me āna mahi ngāhere mō ngā poaka e kai manu ana nā te tokomaha o ngā manu, kia tāhuri kē tātou ki ēnei rā kai te poho kore kē ngā kararehe kua tata ki te toromi ki Te Reinga".
E toru tekau mā rima ngā tau o Tame me tōna pirangi ki a pai ake te ao mō āna tamariki. Ko Kahurangi tōna mākau rangatira nō Ngāti Te Ata ia nō Tamaki Makaurau, ko Kaiwhare tā rāua mātāmua e toru ōna tau, ko tana taina ka whānau mai ā te Pīpiri o tēnei tau.
I whānau mai i pakekengia ai a Tame i Rotorua ko ia, hai tāna kī, te tangata tapahi mīti – tangata kari rua tupapaku i tōna whenua kura i Waikowhatu i ngā tahataha o Te Rotoiti.
"Ko taku aronga nui ko te whakamātau i taku hinengaro ki ngā wehi o te ngāhere".
" E whāngai kōrero ngāhere ana tōku matua tāne, ōku kaumātua rānei e horo kapua kau ana ōku taringa – nā reira ai taku wairua e mea nei nā ngā pakeke au i whakakotahi atu ki te wao nui a Tāne. Nā te āhua o tana mahi me whakapakari me rangahau tonu a Tame ki ngā mātauranga o te ao hou me te ao tawhito.
"Ko ngā kaupapa pepa kaupapa -ā-tari pēnei me te tiaki tinana ā tiwhikete nei me whai ki a mau engari anō tētehi atu taha ko te wānanga, ko te noho tahi me ngā tohunga me ngā mātanga".
Me te mōhiohio hoki o Tame ko te reo Māori me te whakapapa ngā poutāūhuroa o tana mahi. " He pōhēhē nui nō te iwi ko taku mahi he hakoke ngāhere kau, he pupuhi ngārara engari ko te ngako nui he ako, he rangahau, he noho i te hohonutanga o te ao Māori".
E kore e tāea e Tame te whakahuahua ingoa o ngā tangata katoa nānā ia i awhina i tana huarahi papa pounamu nei.
"Ka tūponohia he pioi he āwhina ka puta mai, ka tūtakingia he hoa, he aroha he ahakoa he nui, he ahakoa he iti – me te mea hoki kāore he paku ki ahau ki te tuku i ōku mōhiotanga ki te taringa whakarongo.
Ko tētehi anō pirangi ki a uru mai anō he kanohi Māori ki te ao whakahaere kaupapa kīrearea nei mātua kia nui ake ai te hunga Māori e kaha nei ki te whakarauora me te whakaū mātauranga e ora ake ai tō tātou ngāhere me ōna tamariki huhua.
A united Te Arawa, where pest management is governed, managed and implemented by the confederation of our iwi is the ultimate aspiration for pest management advocate Tame Malcolm.
"When it comes to pest management, collaboration is the key. It is cheaper and easier if your neighbour also does pest control to stop reinvasion."
But eradication, that goal in pest control, will take commitment and co-operation from several parties including iwi, government, farmers and neighbours.
"I was always interested in the ngāhere even as a kid. I have been doing this since I left school. My whole career has been in pest management, specifically helping Māori communities develop, research, and implement pest management on their whenua and using mātauranga and tikanga based approaches."
"I would love to be able to harvest our manu again and when our tupuna signed the treaty they signed it knowing we would have undisturbed possession of our taonga.
"I would love to get to a state where it is so noisy that with kereru at this time of the year, we could practice harvesting them because it would be doing them good for the population."
However, it is illegal in New Zealand to harvest native birds like kereru because of the massive decline of populations and Tame says it will take a collective effort to revive our mātauranga that can help protect the ngahere.
Tame, whose given names are Thomas Ford Malcolm, is an advocate of using 1080 providing the highly regulated control toxin is part of an effective management plan to eradicate pests like rats, stoats and possums.
"If we look at the next best forests in Rotorua, it's Mōkaihāhā, Kaharoa and Rotoehu and
that's where they do regular 1080 drops as well as trapping and monitoring using local people.
"The only places we have kōkako are where we use 1080."
The uri of Ngāti Tarāwhai, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Ngāraranui, Tapuika, and Ngāti Ruanui welcomes a united Te Arawa front to pest management and encourages more hapū to look into pūrākau, waiata, kōrero tuku iho and Māori literature for guidance.
"Rotoehu is our ūkaipō for Ngāti Tamatea Tūtahi, Ngāti Kawiti, so hearing the stories of my kaumātua growing up in that area where pigs used to scavenge dead native birds because there were that many in the nggahere as opposed to now where everything is starving."
Tame, 35, wants to leave a better world for his children. He and his wife Kahurangi, who is from Ngāti Te Ata in Auckland, have a son Kaiwhare, 3 and are expecting a second son in June.
Born and raised in Rotorua, Tame describes himself as one of the "meat cutter uppers and grave diggers" at his marae, Waikohatu, at Rotoiti.
"I was always into learning about the bush. "Anytime my Pāpā or any of my kaumātua would share knowledge about the ngahere, I was all ears and would absorb it all.
"Therefore, I would say it was my pakeke that inspired me to follow this path."
His job still requires training and learning.
"There is the official stuff like degrees, licenses, and health and safety certifications. But then there is also the informal training like wānanga and spending time with tohunga and mātanga."
Tame believes te reo Maori and whakapapa are perhaps the most important aspects of his mahi.
"While most people think my mahi in the ngahere is just walking in the bush and killing pests, the majority of it is learning from, and in, Te Ao Māori."
Tame says there are too many people to name who helped on his work pathway.
"Anyone and everyone I meet has helped me in some way.
"I will gladly share any knowledge I have with anyone that will listen. My hope is that it will get more Māori into pest management, but also that we will get more Māori helping to restore and revive our mātauranga that can help protect the ngāhere."
Listen to that kereru: It's so fat that its wings flap loudly and slowly as it struggles to fly out of the bush where it has been feasting on tawa berries.
I look out my bedroom window and there it is, ungainly. I walk through to the front of the house and see the kowhai tree in the garden is full of tui.
It is the 1990s and I am living in the hills above Manurewa. There is bush on my back boundary and our cul de sac ends at the Botanic Gardens.
Bird life is all around us. Kereru and tui are frequent visitors as are fantails, sparrows, starlings and magpies.
But there are also rats and possums in the bush. I don't want to go too close in case there are other nasties.
My fox terrier comes off second best when she tries to take those pests on.
There are news stories about gluttonous kereru getting drunk on berries and falling off their perches.
I remember eating kereru as a teen and young adult. In accordance with tikanga it is a
food to be enjoyed by women; men get the bones, feet and beak.
Fast forward to today and life in Ngāpuna and there is a resident tui nearby.
During the first covid lockdown two years ago a pair of kererū appeared in the garden. The whole eastside industrial area was quiet and birdsong filled the air.
In the morning and evening the resident tui calls, but otherwise it is just the buzz of traffic — and barking dogs.
An online petition supporting the hapū has over 1950 signatures.