The call of Tū Mai Taonga - coming home for conservation

Tū Mai Taonga’s ambitious indigenous led conservation project on Aotea, Great Barrier Island , is unique in that it is restoring its people and its place. It’s creating jobs that haven’t been available on the remote island previously - opening opportunities for its whānau to return home. 

Niki Wii has returned to his spiritual home on Aotea, Great Barrier Island.

The call of Tū Mai Taonga has brought Niki Wii home.

As Ngāti Rehua-Ngātiwai ki Aotea, Niki has always wanted to return permanently to his spiritual home on Aotea Great Barrier Island and a job at Tū Mai Taonga has been his ticket to make that happen.

Niki is one of around 30 contractors engaged by the project. Part of Tū Mai Taonga’s vision is to restore people as well as place, providing jobs, restoring culture, and building economic sustainability.

“I have always felt a strong connection with the land and sea,” says Niki.

“And coming back home to an environment I’m very familiar with, to participate in restoring our bird life, flora and fauna, and ocean is just humbling.”

“At the moment I have joined the track cutting crew in Te Paparahi for the feral cat and rat trapping lines and plan to continue to upskill so I can cover a variety of fieldwork within the project.”

Like many who have grown up on Aotea, Niki previously found employment on the island limited.

“If you wanted to work you just had to take what was around. Commercial fishing, mussel farming, conservation work, track work, pest control, beekeeping, for example.”

“Around four years ago I left for Tauranga to up skill and gain qualifications in something I loved doing — either around the bush or the ocean.

“l decided to look into marine studies at University. The minimum requirement for this was to have a Divemaster qualification.

Rescue diver training.

“l decided to look into marine to do a diploma in being a scuba and freediver instructor, and later advanced to training scuba instructors. Gaining all this experience, I am wanting to use it to upskill our own people here on Aotea, to have the expertise to open doors for job/business opportunities around marine conservation.”

For Māori, it’s important to take care of the environment from land to sea. As a dive instructor, Niki has trained some of the Tū Mai Taonga trappers to dive; an important skillset in ocean conservation, while he expands his own experience trapping in the bush he has hunted in since he was young.

“I remember a time when there was a lot of sounds of bird life. When I was young, pig hunting with my Uncles, we would have a rest waiting for the dogs to start bailing the pigs, and we would just sit there and listen to the birds,” he says.

“The bush is quieter now. But with the mahi of the Tū Mai Taonga team, I’m hoping to hear the birdsong in my lifetime again.”