About Papawhakaritorito Trust

Our vision: This project takes place on lands stolen from mana whenua (local indigenous peoples) deforested and stripped of its native habitat due to agricultural colonisation, particularly livestock and dairy production. The land is also close to a regional park that shows us, on our daily walks, how diverse, fueling, healing and vibrant the forests used to be. We seek to elevate the healing of land and communities by bringing back a thriving biodiversity to Tane Mahuta (Deity of the Forests), food for the birds and a vibrant soil food web. We will transform ecosystems to enable local Indigenous communities to return to their cultural foodways of nature.

Being a good descendant: Recloaking our Earth Mother, Papatūānuku will enable us to fulfil our obligations as her descendants and will enliven Indigenous Māori food ways to enable a return to the eating of our cultural landscapes as Indigenous communities. This type of land regeneration is an antidote to the prevailing settler colonial norms of mechanised agriculture and the extractive logics of capitalism. This is more than simply land regeneration, this is a project about thriving Indigenous communities holding spirit and place with nature.

Our values: Leading by the values of our ancestors. Regenerating Indigenous Healing Grounds is a values-led project, guided by the infinite wisdom of our tūpuna (ancestors) and our debt to them for the gifts they have brought us.

We bring the values of:

Aroha ki a Papatūānuku - love and compassion for our Earth Mother
Mana Wahine - acknowledging the creative and connective powers of Indigenous women
Tauutuutu - reciprocal obligations to enhance the wellbeing of the other
Whanaungatanga - the weaving and binding of communities
Rangatiratanga - Indigenous self determination

Our Regenerative Tending

We have been stewarding 12 hectares of hua parakore (Māori verified organic) land for the last 20 years in Kaitoke, Wellington, Aotearoa. This has involved re-cloaking the land in native trees to bring back native birds, sequester carbon, to grow biodiversity and live Indigenous food, seed and soil sovereignty everyday. We have a particular focus on soil health and elevating the mana (power and reputation) of our soil deity - Hineahuone.

This work has been done alongside Indigenous communities and with non-Indigenous allies as a pathway to heal the trauma of agricultural colonisation and model regenerative activities for Indigenous hope and healing on land. Whilst we have done a lifetime's work planting trees and digging holes on some parts of our land as well as growing food gardens to live Māori food sovereignty everyday, our vision is to scale out these activities to the rest of the farm, restoring grassland back to forest in community with Indigenous peoples.

With Support…

We seek to create a biodiversity corridor from our farm to these remaining ancient forests. We will return our pasture paddocks back to native forest and wetland habitats through management of invasive species and the planting of thousands of native trees endemic to our area. We will involve Indigenous communities and our allies in these activities to return to the spirit of nature both for tangata (people) and whenua (land).

Communicating Change

Ka ora te taiao, ka ora te tangata - when you heal land you heal people.

Living our values with nature - The key outcomes of this land restoration project are found in our values that we will inhabit on this journey of transformation for both tangata (people) and whenua (land).

Reforestation and regeneration - We intend to regenerate and reforest 3 ha of farmland, with infrastructure to support the project, storytelling and the coming together of communities.

Amplifying Indigenous narratives - As Indigenous storytellers, writers and researchers we will produce a range of digital outputs to share with our communities and our social media following to show the pathway we are taking from agricultural colonisation to rematriation.