The Ruakituri Community Lunch was an opportunity to come together in the spirit of Matariki to reflect on the previous year, acknowledge those who are no longer with us, and launch our two Catchment Projects.

Councilor Charles Lambert opened our hui with a karakia acknowledging Matariki and the importance of community, this was followed by our Chair Nuku Hadfield who welcomed our many important visitors and the community gathered. She made special note of those who had passed away and also the beautiful table decorations that the Ruakituri School children had made with harakeke woven stars. Nuku was easily able to align the significance of each of the stars within the Matariki cluster to our lives as growers of food and people passionate about the environment in which we live and the two projects we were gathered together to celebrate and understand.

Our Keynote speaker was David Todd from Toddy Talks. Toddy grew up on a farm in central Hawkes Bay, went into Rural Banking around Tairawhiti and recalled some funny times as a young banker visiting a property within the valley. He spoke on this occasion as part of the team from Rural Support Trust who are passionate and working towards improving rural mental wellbeing. He provided some down-to-earth techniques and tips for everyone to build into their own lives and take active steps towards building their own ‘top two inches’ of well-being. Johnathan Bell and Kylie Brown were also in attendance to support those who may want to reach out in the future.

The first Project Launch is the IFP project. This is a 4-year project to improve farmer confidence and capability with strong outcomes for the farming business and the environment. This has come about via funding received from the Ministry for Primary Industries and it was great to have Rachel Agnew and Doug Bailey from MPI to share in the celebrations. Genevieve Bennet has been our champion from MPI along with Kate Wood to move this project through the red tape!

The project is being managed through Agfirst Gisborne. Shanna Cairns and Peter Manson both provided a summary of the Integrated Farm Planning Project. A strong theme is that the programme of work must be led and directed by the farmers of the Ruakituri and that the team at Agfirst will provide guidance, oversight and expertise to help farmers achieve their own visions and goals. Agfirst will ensure that woven through all pogrammes will be best practice for the soils we have and an outcome will be that we will be upskilled to reach high levels of regulatory compliance in a deliberate way and lean on and influence decision makers with our collective lived wisdoms.

Our second project to launch is the yet-to-be-named “Community Catchment Project’. We have received seed funding from the Department of Internal Affairs and will be seeking further funds to progress this initiative over the coming months and years.

We are incredibly lucky to have Simon Stokes managing this project, Simon has a long connection to the area and is passionate about community involvement and the collective power of engaging all stakeholders, building on and embedding our history and keeping a strong focus on both short and very long term goals and the nature of the outcomes taking time. Simon was able to establish the beginning of a steering group to guide this mahi and the invitation stands for others to join in with this kaupapa when and as they can.

To round out the morning, James Brownlie presented the certificates to those who had recently completed the Wheels, Tracks, and Rollers licensing course and the community acknowledged the time and huge commitment put in by James and his staff supported by Geoff Smith in towing 82 trucks up the road to maintain access for stock in and out of the valley over the past 18 months.

It was great to have the children from the kura join us as Willie Jackson offered a blessing and grace for the community to enjoy a lovely lunch prepared by Emma Morton and her team.

the Guardians stayed on after lunch for a Catchment Workshop to give Shanna and Pete a steer on the programme for the next few months. It was wonderful to have Dave Withers and Archie Smith able to connect the importance of historical achievements as a foundation to move into the next phase.

The event was organised and MC’d by Di Roadley Guardians of the Ruakituri Coordinator

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