Seed Wānanga
- Roslyn Nancekivell
- Feb 28
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 8
During February we hosted an amazing group of people for a two-day seed wānanga in Walton, Matamata-Piako. It was an enriching two-days building capacity across our catchment and connecting with others passionate about the sovereignty of our native plant species.
Te Aroha Drummond, one of Aotearoa’s leading seed experts and trustee of Piako Waihou Catchment Trust, led the wānanga with support from Wayne Bennett from Forest Flora Nursery, and Jude Tisdall from Piako Waihou Catchment Trust.
A wide range of topics were covered from plant identification, seed collection, seed preparation, identifying healthy seed, to seed sowing. The wānanga included a field trip to Te Ngāhere o Waharoa (Hawes Bush) to see the restoration efforts in the kahikatea forest remnant and provide a hands-on experience identifying and collecting seed.
The wānanga focused on the importance of seed sovereignty, respecting the variants of native species which would have originally grown in our area of the motu along
with the large amount of plant diversity which is naturally found in our native ngāhere. At Piako Waihou Catchment Trust we believe in planting ‘forever forests’, investing in the native species which would have been present prior to the forests being cleared for farmland, and those species with a life-span long-enough to provide a sustainable forest canopy resulting in an eco-system which can support itself and be as close to pre-colonial Aotearoa.
This wānanga was made possible with support from: Go Eco WaiConnect, and a Valder grant from Forest and Bird. A big shout out to Mamma Stace for her beautiful kai helping to sustain us through the hard mahi.
For more information or to be advised when our next wānanga will be held, please contact us.
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