On 2 November, representatives from Te Hōnonga a Iwi and UWEN were invited by Kaumatua Richard Nahi to attend the dawn service of the opening of new facilities at
Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara's Te Kia Ora Marae.
Travelling North in the steady stream of lights from cars silently carving their way across Dairy Flat, Kaukapakapa and Helensville in the quiet of pre-dawn was exciting. We quickly realised we were part of a very special, very large occasion. Observing 1000 mana whenua whānau and supporters make their way, with tamariki snoozing in the back seats of cars, to the marae at 4.30am to honour iwi ancestors and all the people who have contributed towards the construction and opening of the marae’s spectacular new whare nui, whare kai and carpark facilities was inspiring. We felt privileged to be welcomed onto the marae and experience the blessing of the new buildings that signalled the completion of a 25-year vision for Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara Te Kia Ora Marae.
The opportunity to visit the marae and pay tribute to iwi who have worked hard to support the development of Te Hõnonga a Iwi was important for us. The experience was special and gave us a chance to invest more support and mauri ora or positive energy into our primary restoration partners, Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara.
We look forward to continuing to work hard together with our 65 other local businesses and organisations as we regenerate the whenua, the awa and their ecosystems to better care for our people.
If your organisation would like to invest in us by having Christmas working bee event at our restoration or make a $500 Christmas donation to enable our work to continue at pace and scale, please let Nicky know on hello@restoringrosedalepark.org.nz or donate here.
November 2024 outcomes also included the following:
- North Harbour Hockey began its Waste Zero 2027 campaign with harvesting 2 tonnes of biomass, including paper, cardboard, green waste, mulch and food scraps from its waste stream into their bioreactors for composting to increase soil health.
- We have welcomed Central Landscape Supplies Albany as one of our partners and thank them for gifting us the bark we needed for the new community garden.
- Wilson School continues to visit fortnightly to work at the restoration, caring for the chickens and the land. Thank you to the team of students and teachers at Wilson School for your ongoing commitment to Te Hōnonga a Iwi.
- Rangitoto College have their last Saturday working bee on Nov 30 10 -12 pm.
- We were delighted to support Westminster School Enviro Schools Bronze award presentation. Westminster School are regular investors into Restoring Rosedale Park and work hard at school to increase their sustainability and deliver positive outcomes for nature. Huge congratulations to Westminster for all they have achieved across many years of ecological change to gain the Bronze Enviro Schools award.
- We presented an online case study presentation at the Christchurch freshwater ecology hui focussing on harnessing business led nature-based solutions and developing positive partnerships with Iwi/Mana whenua.
- We welcomed new chicken carer Min to the team who work daily to care for our 20 hens. We continue to learn how to deliver the best care possible for our hens as they clear the weeds and offer us inground composting. The use of daily reports through WhatsApp and systems designed by Svea Berling, Untangled Landscapes, has enabled us to rapidly grow our knowledge and ability to offer good chicken care.
- The back half of the month has been spent organising and preparing for the construction of our new māra kai, community food garden on November 21. Please read the news article on the construction day. Massive thanks to Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara, BUPA, NZ Landcare Trust, Dingle Foundation, Untangled Landscapes, Auckland Council, Westminster School, Plan C, BeMedia, Pioneer Pies, Central Landscape Supplies, Atlas, NZ Machine Hire, Diabetes NZ, Grow Forrest Hill, North Harbour Hockey Association for their incredible collaboration and effort to construct the food garden.
- We received notification that our application for 500 natives has been approved by Trees that Count. We are very grateful for their ongoing support.
- Trees that Count and Paremoremo Prison native tree orders have been placed for 2025 planting. Please let Nicky know on hello@restoringrosedalepark.org.nz if you would like to help us grow carex seeds for the 2026 planting season.
- The truckload of construction rubbish that was dumped on site in October has been removed by Auckland Council with support from our park ranger Theo Jaycox and Darryl from Hilton Brown Swimming.
- The 17th wild cat has been live trapped and assessed by the local vet as feral. We are indebted to Phillip and the vet team for helping us.
- Elouise, Animal Pest manager, is looking for more trapping help please. If you can help with trapping for rats, possums and stoats, we can teach you all you need to know. Please message Nicky on hello@restoringrosedalepark.org.nz
- Cadey Korson, Academic at Massey University is in the process of producing the yearlong documentary on Te Hõnonga a Iwi social value chain.
- We continue to attend our local regional ecology meetings at UWEN to connect with and learn from our peers.
- New volunteer group, Recreate, undertook a working bee in November. Recreate offers opportunity for people managing mixed abilities to contribute huge value within the community. We welcome Recreate and thank all their volunteers for their effort, skills and time.
- The partners in the seed whakapapa model had their second special handover ceremony in November. Year 2 Kristin students welcomed older adults from Settlers Lifestyle Village to hand over Te Hõnonga a Iwi native seedlings for the Settlers folk to care for the plants until Matariki 2025. We thank all partners in the seed whakapapa model including youth leader Olivia, Rangitoto College. She has grown a lot of the seedlings from seed she collected in the restoration.
- We attended a regional Kai Hui in Mt Roskill to continue learning skills for the development of the Mahinga Kai, community food garden.
- The results of the Auckland Climate Grant and WMIF funding applications are due at the end of November and December 2024.
- The last scheduled working bee is taking place Nov 30 at 10 – 12 onsite. We will be welcoming a small group of Auckland Intermediate students who are researching aquatic plants. Please join us as we focus on weed releasing the 2024 native seedlings ahead of the summer break.
This is the final newsletter for 2024. With over 65 organisations now investing in restoring Rosedale Park, we have achieved monumental outcomes across this year. Highlights include the production of our 3D model, building a chicken enclosure and coop, welcoming our chickens and the chicken carers, planting 1500 more natives, building landscape scale school and business led trapping teams, catching the 17th wild cat for vet assessment, growing our youth leadership base, beginning harvesting biomass for composting from hockey’s waste stream, securing funding with UWEN’s support for succession planning and a paid coordinators role, building a new community food garden and witnessing more local people coming to walk in the newly created bush with their families.
Over 3000 people from across iwi, and the commercial, education, public and sports sectors have secured positive climate action and worked hard across three years to connect, unite, collaborate and generate outcomes that really matter.
Untold thanks to each volunteer, business and organisation for their mahi. We hope when you visit you can feel proud of your effort and investment in us. We look forward to working with you all throughout 2025 to produce local healthy food and plant our 10 000th native.
We would like to pay special tribute to Auckland Council, Untangled Landscapes, Paremoremo Prison Nursery, Trees that Count, UWEN, Richard Nahi, Sheryl Blythen, Matt Cummings, Svea Burling, Tony Cunningham, Rachael Pates, Louis Foot, Theo Jaycox, Corrie Morrissey, Gail Goodwin, Sam Weston, Navroop, and youth leaders Aria, Alicia, Elouise, Haemish, Sam, Daniel, Madeline, George, the Robotics team, Zelie, Aubrey, Chris, Jocey, Min, Ferah, Lily, Hannah, Miriam, Caleb, Liam, David, Jerry, Olivia, Ceinwen, Eva, Marina, Evie, Liam, Mariko, Milo, Matthew, for the integral roles they play in securing our successes. Thank you all.
Until then, take special care of the Christmas season. We will be thinking about you and your families and hope to see you in late January as we begin our 4th year of restoring Rosedale Park.
Ngā manaakitanga,
Te Hōnonga a Iwi team.
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