The Pūkaha Mt Bruce Wildlife Sanctuary has been saved from the brink of closure with the help of the Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā Trust.
The Wairarapa-based sanctuary has faced closure for a month, with pleas for immediate funding support to prevent its closure.
Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā Trust has stepped in and will work with the sanctuary under a co-ownership model.
Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā Trust Chair Sonya Rimene says this is an opportunity to grow the space and offer visitors a Māori experience when in the sanctuary.
“We’ll be growing it as a tourism place, come visit, come sit in the ngahere, come and learn about our people and how Pūkaha was our supermarket, it was our chemist, it was a place where we would wānanga and we can still do that, not only with ourselves, not only with our community but actually at a national and international stage,” she says.
Pūkaha Mt Bruce sanctuary
The Sanctuary stands on the remains of Te Tāpere Nui a Whātonga, the great forest that once stretched from Wairarapa into Central Hawke’s Bay, and is also a place of deep significance to mana whenua.
Pūkaha has operated as a wildlife breeding sanctuary since 1963, helping to restore populations of at-risk native birds and trees.
In 2016, as part of their Treaty settlement with the Crown, Pūkaha was returned to Rangitāne o Wairarapa and Rangitāne o Tāmaki nui-ā-Rua. A year later, it was gifted back to the Crown to enable a co-governance model.
But since 2019, a series of challenges have left the sanctuary in urgent need of support.
Pūkaha Mt Bruce Co-Chair Bob Francis says the co-ownership model must be supported and properly recognised.
“Recognising that there is joint ownership here, so how do we work together, how do we get the best gains for this magnificent facility, how do we increase the numbers coming, how do we take this to another level,” he says.
“I see this as a positive not a negative it’s always going to be something quite exciting really.”
He mahi ngātahi
Kei te kimi te tarahiti nei i te ara o te mahi ngātahi, e whai hua a rātou whakapaunga pūtea.
Ko ngā hua pērā i te tino rangatiratanga i ā rātou nā whare wānanga e kīia nei ko Te Whare Taiao, me te aha, kua whakawhiti atu tētahi tahua pūtea, kotahi miriona tāra te nui atu i a Pūkaha Mt Bruce ki a Rangitāne.
- A significant arrangement with Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā will result in debt reduction and help keep the centre open. In this arrangement, Rangitāne will assume the ownership and operations of the Whare Wānanga complex in return for meeting existing infrastructure debt and providing a working capital injection to the Pūkaha Mount Bruce Board.
- Tararua District Council for transferring the $1 million council loan from Pūkaha Mount Bruce to Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā. The Council has also agreed to forego the interest of $146,000 on the loan as part of the collective effort to ensure Pūkaha Mount Bruce remains operational.
- Central Energy Trust’s magnificent gesture of converting a $1 million loan into a grant.
- Masterton District Council providing a $200,000 long-term loan.
- Trust House and other local funders who rallied to support Pūkaha.
- Department of Conservation for its support in keeping the conservation programs operating.
Ko te kī a Rimene, mā konei e tānekaha ai te taura here tangata me te kaunihera rātou ko te Karauna.
“We are seeking to novate the Tararua District Council loan from Pūkaha Mt Bruce board to Rangitāne and this will address a structural debt associated with the whare wānanga.”
