Te Mahia students attended today a very informative workshop on Rongoa and traditional use of native plants. Kathleen Mato, Rae Te Nahu, Edward Hammond and Jennifer Scothern shared their knowledge to a very interested audience. Students had the opportunity to hear from their Kuia and Kaumatua how they used their precious native plants for medicinal and traditional purposes. Kathleen, Rae and Edward explained how in the past, people were relying a lot on these plants to survive.
Later on in August the students will be taking part to a planting project along the Whangawehi stream. After this workshop the students should know more about the trees they are going to plant.

At the beginning of July, Te Mahia school students learnt about fish and invertebrates that live in their river, why the river was so important and what to do to improve water quality.

This workshop is a part of the Whangawehi Catchment Management Group’s initiative looking at transferring local knowledge around Matauranga Maori themes in order to forge the next generations of Kaitiaki and reach out to the entire community.

This project is a collaboration between local Iwi and a large number of agencies.

The next workshop for this winter are :

– Vision map for the Catchment (24/07/2014)

– Native trees identification and properties (Rongoa etc.) ( 31/07/2014)

– Weaving workshop (14/08/2014)

We will keep you posted