This video was submitted in November 2022 by Diane Menzies (Rongowhakaata Iwi) speaking with Damien Bell (Gundithmara).

Keywords:
story, land, people, connection, place

Turanganui-a-Kiwa, the harbour of Gisborne on the east coast of Te Ika-a-Maui, the North island of Aotearoa New Zealand connects this important place with the voyaging canoes from Te Moananui-a-Kiwa, the Pacific. The landfall of several canoes, whose stories are well known, such as the Horouta, the area is fertile, has been cared for since the 1300’s and is the home of Rongowhakaata. Their heritage is the land where tall forest trees grew in the well-watered soils, and where exemplary carving produced a house which has been the central exhibit of Aotearoa’s Museum Te Papa, having been previously stolen by the government. My Rongowhakaata heriatge is the stories, the land, the arts and the connections to the people through evenbts and genealogy. With currents threats to this heritage as across Aotearoa New Zealand of biodiversity loss, climate change and the degradation of water quality, Rongowhakaata iwi are working to restore riparian planting to stabilise river banks and the foreshore as well as develop advanced skills in landscape management.