Advisory Group

Customary Fisheries Iwi Advisory Officer

• Nigel Scott, Toitū Te Whenua, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu.  Nigel works for Toitū Te Whenua, the environmental unit of the Ngāi Tahu Tribal Council - Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. Nigel’s core function for Toitū Te Whenua is to protect and enhance the customary fishing rights of Ngāi Tahu Whānui. He has worked for the Ngāi Tahu tribal council on customary fisheries matters since April 1998. Nigel has a forestry science degree with second-class, division one honours from the University of Canterbury.  Nigel’s key mahi involves building the capacity of flaxroots Ngāi Tahu to implement the customary non-commercial provisions of the Treaty of Waitangi (Fisheries Claims) Settlement Act 1992, with particular emphasis being given to the identification and protection of areas of importance for customary fishing through the establishment and ongoing management of tools like Mātaitai and Taiāpure.  Nigel’s other projects for Toitū Te Whenua include the development of a strong and enduring relationship with the Ministry of Fisheries, with particular emphasis being placed on appointing and supporting Pou Hononga (Iwi Relationship Managers) and Pou Takawaenga (Customary Fisheries Policy Analysts); the processing of the Ngāi Tahu Tangata Tiaki/Kaitiaki catch landing returns for the Ministry of Fisheries and Nigel also facilitates greater Ngāi Tahu input into the certification of forestry operations within the Ngāi Tahu Whānui Takiwā through the certification standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).  Nigel became actively involved with Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai as he saw the benefits of adopting a co-ordinated and integrated approach to conducted monitoring and research work within the Ngāi Tahu Mātaitai and Taiāpure. Nigel believes that the development of community-based tools to conduct baseline surveys of the fisheries resources and to assess the level of recreational and commercial (in the case of Taiāpure) harvesting will greatly assist the customary managers of each reserve to better manage their area which in turn should lead to better environmental outcomes. These tools coupled with the scientific baseline surveys, and the mātauranga-based research that may be conducted in each reserve provide Tangata Tiaki/Kaitiaki with an impressive toolkit.  You can contact Nigel by email at:  nigel.scott@ngaitahu.iwi.nz or by phone: 0800 524-8248 or fax: 03 365-4424.
  

Department of Conservation

Kerry Hogan, ..

Ministry of Fisheries advisors

• Joseph Wakefield, Ngāi Tahu.
  

• Carl Baker. Kia ora!  Ko Carl Baker taku ingoa. Ko Takitimu, Horouta me Kurahaupō ëtahi o ōku waka.  Ko Ngāti Porou, Kahungunu, Rongomai wahine, Rangitane me Ngāi Tahu ëtahi o ōku iwi.  He Pou takawaenga āhau e mahi ana i raro i te korowai o te tari e kia nei Te Tautiaki i nga tīni a Tangaroa (The Ministry of Fisheries). mailto:Carl.Baker@fish.govt.nz
  

Carl Baker is the main Ngāi Tahu member of the Ministry's Pou Takawaenga.  Joe is the main Ngāi Tahu member of the Ministry's Te Tari a Pou Honongā.  Together they will keep their colleagues in the Ministry of Fisheries informed of Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai's progress and advise the project team of how they can best help the Ministry of Fisheries kaupapa to support customary fishing by Māori.

Māori research advisors

Rau Kirikiri, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui.

Tēnā rawa atu tātou katoa. Greetings. I’m Rau Kirikiri and I hail from Te Kaha, on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. However, I currently reside in Wellington, from whence I endeavor to make my contribution to the Tiaki Mahinga Kai project. My background is grounded in tikanga Māori tinged with smatterings of public service and science research experience. I am an independent consultant on Māori science research-related issues like this one – for which I might add I have an intense interest in. My association with Henrik Moller and others in the team goes back to my time with Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research (in the early 1990’s), through the Kia Mau te Tītī Mo Ake Tonu Atu programme. Manaaki Whenua and the Zoology Department at Otago University shared a burning belief in co-management principles, such as they were at that time, and that commitment has continued to this day. I have always believed that this country’s conservation ethic is deeply rooted in both traditional and scientifically based observations and practical implementation. The Tiaki Mahinga Kai project aims to demonstrate this, and whatever I can do to make this happen I regard as being highly rewarding. My focus is on ensuring that traditional Māori management practices are enriched with science-based investigation to produce contemporary fisheries management regimes that are both sustainable and beneficial to the country as a whole. Mine is to provide support to the efforts of the highly skilled science and local community expertise that the project has successfully drawn together. I don’t regard myself as a kaumātua – I’m far too young for that – and I am not formally qualified in the sort of science that this project requires. But I have much experience in working with iwi around the country on environmental management matters, and in banging heads with bureaucrats in Wellington (and elsewhere), to hopeful contribute positively to making the difference that I believe we all want to see through this project. (021) 335-714 rauk@xtra.co.nz

• Dr Khyla Russell (Kāi Tahu) is Kā Rakahau o Te Ao Tūroa's 'Pouhere Tangata'.  She has been appointed by the Kāi Tahu whānui to be the cultural guide for the research centre and its relationship with Tangata Whenua.  Khyla's own PhD was on Kai Tahu's concepts of ecological landscapes, so she will also have a direct role in supervising students' thesis work. She is active in the Ōtākou Rūnaka. KhylaR@tekotago.ac.nz

Kaumātua

Trevor Howse, Ngāi Tahu.   Trevor worked for the Ngāi Tahu Māori Trust Board and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu for many years in a diverse range of roles including the management of the land bank process between Ngāi Tahu and the Crown as part of Te Kereme and the subsequent Settlement.  He was a member of the Ngāi Tahu negotiating team that developed the Ngāi Tahu Deed of Settlement with the Crown and especially guided the Mahinga Kai parts of the negotiations. Trevor then served as chairman of the now disestablished Mahinga Kai Tikanga o Ngāi Tahu Komiti and was an instrumental member of the Ngāi Tahu fisheries team that developed the South Island Customary Fishing Regulations with the Ministry of Fisheries and the eight iwi of Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka a Māui. He also was the Kaitohutohu for the Ngāi Tahu Customary Fisheries Unit for many years.  Trevor keeps on keeping on!  He continues to provide mentoring support for the staff of Toitū Te Whenua (Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu’s environmental management team) and now has agreed to act as Kaumātua support for Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai.  We are indeed priveleged to have him in the team.

Mr. Nicholas Graham (Tiny) Metzger, Kāi Tahu whānui, (Awarua Rūnaka).  Descending from the nineteenth century unions of Meriana Teitei and the English whaler William Isaac Haberfield from Moeraki, and Popoia and the sealer Joesph Honor from Whenua Hou, Tiny is a kaumātua from Bluff and is actively involved with Awarua Rūnaka and Te Rau Aroha Marae. He acts as a cultural mentor to many of the students contributing to Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai.  Tiny was brought up in traditional life-ways of southern Māori: he has had a lifetime (75 years so far and going strong!) of practicing customary harvesting of a wide variety of mahinga kai – his household and many of his whānau still mainly survive by wild food gathering, gardening and food exchange.  He has maintained the tikanga of his people and has taught his mokopuna the knowledge he gained from his own pōua and  tāua.  Tiny is probably best known for his participation in the annual tītī harvest because he and his whānau are one of the few that still pack preserved tītī into pōhā (“kelp-bags”). Each year he monitors and selects rimurapa (Bull kelp lamina) for making the traditional storage vessels, and cuts the plants left in situ to manipulate their growth form for next year’s harvest. Over his lifetime he has had to shift his traditional rimurapa gathering areas because land-use and pollution issues have decimated the kelp beds He therefore has a detailed knowledge of kelp and its role as an indicator and provider of shelter and food for mahinga kai.  Tiny is a designated Tangata Tiaki for the Murihiku region (Milford Sound to Balclutha) and is intimately involved in customary fishing management. He is a shareholder in and Deputy Chairman of the Waitutu Incorporation which manages land and assets resulting from the South Island Landless Natives Act 1906 and the Waitutu Settlement Act 1997. Tiny was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal in 1996 and  He Tohu a Tā Kingi Ihaka from Te Waka Toi in 2004 for sustained service to Māori culture.  Tiny has been one of the main instigators of Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai, from concept inception, work on the steering group, and vigorous networking and support of its kaupapa within Ngāi Tahu whānui.  His long involvement with the Kia Mau te Tītī Mo Ake Tōnu Atu research project has also meant he has a growing understanding of the constraints and needs of science, and the threats and opportunities resulting from its interface with mātauranga Māori. He is actively involved in tribal wānanga, most lately the Ahoi te Rangi Trust.  Funded by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu through the Ngāi Tahu Fund, the trust teaches tribal members traditional weaving skills that were almost lost.  This includes teaching how to enhance and prepare natural resources used in weaving such as harakeke, pingao and kiekie.  You can contact Tiny by Email: (c/o Gail Thompson) at: Gail@awarua.org.nz or by phone and fax at (03) 212-8514.

Researchers

• A researcher from each of the contributing research provider organisations will support the decisions of the Rōpu, Kaumātua and Forum.  In the first instance this will be John Pirker (University of Canterbury), Simon Lambert (Manaaki Whenua) and Henrik Moller (University of Otago). Naturally all the students and other researchers will support Forum decisions with fisheries management advice and general advocacy of kaitiakitanga and cultural wellbeing.