Te Wai Mauri wins Best Emerging Business
On Friday 12th November, Te Wai Mauri Limited won the Pan Pac Hawke’s Bay Business Award for Best Emerging Business for 2021.
Added 3 years ago
On Friday 12th November, Te Wai Mauri Limited won the Pan Pac Hawke’s Bay Business Award for Best Emerging Business for 2021. The awards were held at an outstanding venue: Toitoi: Hawke’s Bay Arts & Events Centre. This recognition has capped off an exciting first year of trading for Te Wai Mauri.
Since incorporation in September 2020, the company has provided employment for 23 people and carried out a variety of environmental projects, including wetland extension at Waitangi Regional Park, riparian planting at Tūtaekurī awa, maintenance work on Ōtātara Pā, track maintenance in the Kaweka Ranges and installation of Kororā nest boxes within Ahuriri.
Feedback from judges for the award included praise for the clarity of the company’s purpose and vision for social change within the community, with environmental restoration and tikanga practices connecting the community back to its heritage. Te Kaha Hawaikirangi, Chairman of Te Wai Mauri, felt privileged to receive this award on behalf of the company. He affirmed a key drive for the business was to: “provide training and employment for our people where whānau actively engage in the key principles of our mahi such as kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga.”
Te Wai Mauri are a hapū-led environmental company founded by Ngāti Pārau and based out of Waiōhiki Marae. Te Wai Mauri was initially set up through funding from the Provincial Growth Fund with additional support received from other organisations including MSD, Napier Port, Pan Pac, Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay and more recently the Department of Conservation (DOC) Jobs for Nature scheme. This business employs Kaitiaki Rangers who conduct restoration projects for government, council, and private clients throughout Hawke’s Bay. The Kaitiaki Rangers are trained through a programme designed by Te Wai Mauri in partnership and run by Eastern Institute of Technology including outdoor first aid, quad bike licenses, chainsaw and scrub bar use and Growsafe for chemical-handling. Other practical experience includes training alongside DOC rangers.
Te Wai Mauri can be contracted to complete a wide variety of work, ranging from pest control, planting, maintenance, fencing of riparian areas to cultural and environmental monitoring. The name “Te Wai Mauri” refers to the lifeforce of our waterways. The company goals are to increase planting of native vegetation in riparian and wetland areas and to restore them as places of abundant mahinga kai and healthy ecosystems.
