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Peter Ramsden (Rangitāne, Ngāi Tahu – Koukourarata) is a man well known for his boundless passion – for his people, the environment and for the regeneration of the place he calls home – Koukourarata. In the recent Queen’s Birthday honours, Peter was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for his considerable contribution to the environment over the past decades.
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When Kōtukumairangi was paddled down the Ōpara River on Waitangi Day this year it marked 20 years since the waka had been formally gifted to Ngāi Tahu by the late Murray Thacker (1933-2017), founder of the Okains Bay Māori and Colonial Museum. Craig Pauling and Iaean Cranwell have been the unofficial kaitiaki of Kōtukumairangi for much of that time, taking responsibility for training and coordination of paddlers, and overseeing care and maintenance of the waka, in collaboration with museum volunteers and staff. In so doing they have been contributing to the intergenerational history of Ngāi Tahu involvement with the museum (and its famous Waitangi Day commemorations) that stretches back almost half a century.
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Manaia Cunningham spreads his arms wide to encompass the harbour and surrounding land at Koukourārata on Banks Peninsula. “This harbour has its own unique microclimate and gardening has always been in the whakapapa of this hapū,” says Manaia (Ngāti Irakehu, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga).
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The Koukourarata māra kai spreads across two plateaus – one above the other – like a giant vegetable canopy. It is a place of peace, learning and harvest; and the principle of generosity underpins its existence – evident in the small roadside koha stand that sits under the shelter of a giant gum tree.
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