November 19, 2015
Clean up inspires pride in maunga
Rangatahi in Otahuhu now have a better appreciation for their local maunga thanks to a programme aimed at identifying future Auckland leaders.
Programme participants worked on legacy project, including one to restore the mana of Otahuhu or Mount Richmond.
Graeme Tipene from Ngati Whatua says the maunga was significant historically because it controlled the narrow portage between the Waitemata and Manukau harbours.
But in modern Auckand it has been largely overlooked.
He says pupils from Otahuhu Intermediate and McAuley High School were brought in to help, including collecting two tonnes of rubbish off the maunga during a clean-up day last month.
"Hopefully after this programme the kids and the community will take a bigger part in looking after our maunga so in the future it will become a mopre looked after maunga like those other maunga we have in Auckland, Maungakiekie, Maungawhau, so the kids take pride and say ‘You know what, that maunga, that’s my maunga,’" Mr Tipene says.
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