From Waikato to the Amazon, Taane Aruka Te Aho is in Belém, Brazil, as part of Te Kāhui Pōkere, the first iwi-mandated rangatahi delegation put forward by their iwi to attend COP30 – this year’s United Nations climate change conference.
Te Kāhu Pōkere was established under Pou Take Āhuarangi of the National Iwi Chairs Forum, and their focus as iwi is to put rangatahi forward and carry Māori voices to the world.
This comes 33 years after Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu travelled to Brazil as Patron of the National Māori Congress. In her landmark speech she celebrated Aotearoa as a world leader in its nuclear-free stance, one of the first welfare states, and the creation of the Waitangi Tribunal to redress colonial injustice.
At the time, she celebrated that Māori were firm partners in environmental planning, restoration and management of resources, and envisioned a sustainable industrial future.
“Ko tētehi wāhanga o te kōrero a Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu i a ia e haere ana ki Pārihhi toru tekau neke atu tau ki muri: whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua,” hei tā Te Aho.
“He kawe ora tēnei mō te matemate haere o te taiao.”
Taane said there is a great responsibility to carry those words and uphold the aspirations. Furthermore, he said he wants to uphold the aspirations of Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po:
Taku Māoritanga kei roto i taku tiaki i te taiao
<i>My Māoritanga lives within my care for the environment</i>
— Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po, Koroneihana, May 2025
One of Taane’s passions is the protection and restoration of the Waikata awa to the vision of Kīngi Tāwhiao.
Before he was put forward by his iwi to be part of Te Kāhu Pōkere, Taane said he didn’t know too much about ‘climate change’; however, he did know about mahi taiao.
He was part of Ngā Kaitiaki o te Awa – Waikato and Waipā River Iwi Tuna Rōpū, working to protect and restore tuna at Lake Karāpiro through iwi-led translocation and trap-and-transfer initiatives that safeguard this taonga species.
Taane says the Maimai Aroha of Kīngi Tāwhiao is a model for the generation to restore the Waikato River to what Tāwhiao saw and to keep doing the mahi:
Ko tōku awa koiora me ōna pikonga he kura tangihia mō te mātāmuru
<i>The river of live, each curve more beautiful than the last</i>
— Kīngi Tāwhiao Tūkāroto Matutaera Pōtatau Te Wherowhero
The Waikato River catchment is the second-largest catchment in Aotearoa, covering 12 per cent of the North Island, and given the size, different parts of the awa are impacted differently and have different needs and strategies of kaitiakitanga.
“I roto i te pūaha o Waikato, Kāwhia Moana, kei te hiki te wai. Ētehi atu takiwā o Tainui waka, kei te mimiti haere te wai mā,” hei tā Taane Te Aho.
“We’ve never seen the river this high for this long, [and] our harakeke are saturated.”
Taane said in Te Karaka, there are five marae that have to be moved and marae in Te Pūaha o Waikato that are contemplating moving due to the rising sea levels.
“Climate change is now, and it’s a real issue that we have to on top of.”
Waikato River Authority’s Kaihautū Antoine Coffin explained, “There are places that are improving and there are places that are going backwards, but overall, we’re seeing a trend of deterioration.”
The Waikato River Authority has three key purposes: to uphold Te Ture Whaimana, the vision and strategy for restoring and protecting the Waikato River; to take a holistic approach to its management; and to fund rehabilitation and restoration projects led by marae, iwi, hapū, hapori and individuals.
Puniu River Care has made huge progress with their riparian planting, which improves water quality, stabilises river banks and creates habitats. Coffin said the results have been like “going back in time” with children swimming in clear waters.
Although there has been massive progress, Coffin didn’t want to underestimate the amount of work ahead of them. They are currently working on the next iteration of the restoration strategy, which will emphasise a response to climate change.
“Status quo isn’t going to cut it when it comes to the challenge of climate change,” he said.
“I think there’s a virtuous relationship between the work we’re doing in restoration and the climate change challenge. Much of the work we’re doing in many ways is the types of things that we should be doing to build climate change resilience, but there’s now a different scale of work that needs to be done.”
WRA expect increased salinity of the river, which will affect the plants and fish, less rainfall on average with droughts, but also more severe weather events, severe flooding and inundation, which will cause coastal erosion and erosion in the hills, meaning more sediment in the river.
Coffin described the changes as volatile, unpredictable and urgent as they expect changes quickly rather than progressively over generations. While there are some things they can control, he said there needs to be a systems change.
Given the challenges ahead, Coffin was really excited about the COP30 rangatahi delegation and looks forward to hearing their observations, reflections and words of inspiration.
“I really like the idea that many more Indigenous people are going to these conferences to bring Indigenous views and different views to the ones that have been brought forward by world leaders, which are strongly influenced by economic factors,” he said.
“We need to be having the environment and the world in which we live in front and centre and thinking about the future world that our children and grandchildren will live in, and the economics needs to respond in appropriate ways to that.”
