Rongoā For The Land
Restoring the whenua on the Māhia Peninsula
About this resource
Series: School Journal Level 4 November 2020
Reading year level: 7
Category: Non-fiction
Topics: Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories, change, environment, healing, history, indigenous medicine, kaitiakitanga, land, Mahia Peninsula, mana whenua, medicine, native species, rongoā, tradition, wellbeing, whanau, whenua
Rongoā For The Land
Words by Mere Whaanga
Taipōrutu is a sheep and cattle farm on the Māhia Peninsula.
The land has been in the same whānau for twenty generations. It was once covered in native bush: tī kōuka, mānuka, rewarewa, tītoki, kahikatea, nīkau, and kawakawa. These species ensured the health of the land and the health of its people – but then they were cleared for farming.
A few years ago, the family who owns Taipōrutu came up with a plan to restore their whenua. They called the plan Ahikāroa.
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More from this series
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School Journal Level 4 November 2020
Inside this Journal are three stories (Far from Home; Dodinga, 1858; Aunties), two articles (Journeys of Discovery: The Life of Alfred Wallace; Rongoā For The Land), one poem (Shrinking Violet), and one play (Like, Share, Subscribe).
1 of 7Journeys of Discovery - The Life of Alfred Wallace
Wallace’s story is a classic one of adventure, talent, and persistence before he was able to offer one of the most ground-breaking scientific theories of all time.
2 of 7Aunties
Maria Samuela’s affecting story chronicles the week leading up to the narrator’s mother’s funeral, with all its sadness and confusion and overwhelming sense of loss.
3 of 7Dodinga 1858
This story provides some detail about the experiences the famous amateur naturalist Alfred Wallace had while travelling in far-flung places of the globe, hoping to crack the mysteries of evolution.
4 of 7Far from Home
The rest of the kids were playing hopscotch or tag with their friends. No one bothered to pay any attention to the figure hunched in the pōhutukawa tree.
5 of 7Shrinking Violet
This sophisticated poem plays with the natural tension created when a poem’s form doesn’t seem to match the content.
6 of 7Like Share Subscribe
This humorous play is a take on a familiar scenario: thoughtless online behaviour and our sometimes unhealthy relationships with screens.
7 of 7
