Howard and Robert are elders from the Ngati Wai (Water people) Aotearoa New Zealand.
Our indigenous charitable trust is establishing an Ocean Garden to restore the wild stock and to provide food for the local community.
We will be restoring the wild garden surrounding our Hanging Garden, establishing four restorative Reef Systems below and a Hanging Garden above.
All of the above will be protected by a Rahui, a protective order by the community, with a buffer zone of 500 meters surrounding the garden.
We are utilising both Western Science and traditional Maori science as the foundation of growing taonga species such as abalone, mussel, scallop, spiny lobster and seaweed.
Local knowledge and time has given us a gift to restore the ocean and to share this knowledge.
They say if the ocean is healthy the people are healthy..