Iwi's resilience to climate change
Brothers Haukapuanui and Sonny Vercoe are researching how Te Arawa marae can become more resilient to rising water levels and severe weather events resulting from climate change.
The rohe of Te Arawa is centred around Lake Rotorua, stretching to Maketū in the east and to Tongariro in the South.
In 2018, Te Arawa Trust established Te Urunga o Kea, the Te Arawa Climate Change Working group, to prepare for climate change. Bringing together representatives from the trust, Te Arawa tribes, health organisations and associated entities including the Te Arawa Primary Sector, they have identified six priority areas for their community. These include adaptation planning and disaster management, biodiversity, circular enterprise and economies, energy, food and water security and sovereignty, and land use change.
Two Rangatahi, brothers Haukapuanui and Sonny Vercoe, from the University of Auckland, are currently supporting Te Arawa in making marae more resilient. They are working on a research project to understand how prepared marae within Te Arawa are to deal with flooding, tsunami, earthquakes, eruptions and landslides.
Haukapuanui says, "I think it's important that we take climate change seriously because it's inevitable, it's happening now, we see the effects of it all around the world. Climate change is going to bring around more erratic weather events."
Sonny reiterates the importance of the research and giving back to the Te Arawa community. "From an iwi and whānau perspective, this research would benefit us substantially. If marae are prepared that means that whānau are prepared and also taken care of in these times."