On Saturday 19 November 2022 we held our Wānanga Tuatoru at Umupuia Marae

The manuhiri were welcomed onto the marae, followed by a pōhiri.

Sidney Tamati has a contemplative moment.

After our morning tea, the attendees split into 4 groups to go and workshop different aspects of the climate change kaupapa. These where for us to learn about how climate change impacts different areas – whenua, moana, taonga and for us to share thoughts and insights back and forth with the experts.

Ngāi Tai Whanau got to hear directly from specialist scientists and were able to see how Te Ao Māori is connected to climate change, The scientists were able to get thoughts & ideas from Ngāi Tai whanau about what is important for us to consider and where we might want our efforts to go. The range of ages involved made this particularly beneficial for all attendees.

• Akuhata Bailey-Winiata (University of Waikato) took everyone to the beach to learn about sea levels rising.
• Andrea Walter (GNS) showed us landslides behind Umupuia and showed us how modelling can help to predict where landslides may occur and how we can protect ourselves and our homes from damage.
• We had lessons from Lance Monu (Kia Kaha Digital) in using technology to help us protect our Taonga by ensuring our matauranga is collected and catalogued for use by future generations.
• Al Alder spoke to us about the kūtai life cycle and their aspirations for Kūtai Restoration in the Hauraki Gulf.

Frank Haimona from Kura Mātātoa gave us an overview of the programme he runs for tamariki & rangitahi to re-connect to the environment. The kura students gave a demonstration of their hoe skills.

After lunch, we were treated to some excellent presentations from Sidney Tamati – one of our artists.

Professor Andrew Jeffs gave us some real detail about the state of the moana in the Hauraki Gulf and why we need to be taking immediate action to ensure that this unique marine environment can be restored.

“When man becomes the younger brother, nature becomes the elder”

Marama Beamish spoke to us about her work with Auckland Council in the climate change space and gave us a whakataukī describing the Te Ao Māori perspective about taking our lead from the ‘elder’ our environment.

Our last kaupapa was to enjoy the VR Technology of the Blake Foundation. We were treated to a virtual trip around some of our special moana & awa environments.

We got to see how it can look and how pollution and climate change have degraded these.

Ngā mihi nui to all those involved in this awesome day!



Special thanks to all our guest speakers, the hardworking team at Scion – Sylvia, Piata & our wonderful facilitator Kelvin.

We are looking forward to taking our next steps along this journey, ensuring that our Ngāi Tai Whanau have a voice in the vital kaupapa of climate change.