We are ngā kaitiaki of ngā tipu, the guardians, the carers of the plants that we have installed. We go down to Te Waimōkihi from kura about once a month to release the plants from encroaching grass and weeds. A couple of times a year we also plant more tipu to further stabalise the banks of the awa, and provide habitat for the insects that the ika and tuna feed on. Our goal is to increase the number and size of the tuna living in Te Waimōkihi!

We are a Batten Team of three Year 5 and 6 classes at Te Kura o Tūpaki, our Lady of the Assumption School.

We began our mahi at Te Waimōkihi in 2019 through ECan, the City Council and Jenny Bond’s Te Tuna Tāone project to protect Ōtautahi’s urban eels. As a result of their mahi, two of our students coordinated with the City Council to put in a small eel feeding platform, and we as a team began planting on the riparian just to the right of it. Believe it or not, that used to be just grass down to the awa!