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Download AudioNgāi Tahu has celebrated the 25th anniversary of its historic treaty settlement by holding a climate change symposium for whanau.
Since 1998 the South Island iwi has built its original $170 million putea into a $1.9 billion asset base, and over that period has invested more than $930 million in tribal development through education grants, environmental initiatives, language revitalisation, marae projects and other programmes.
Kaiwhakahaere Lisa Tumahai says climate change is the big challenge ahead, with 16 of its marae being in low-lying coastal areas and the inland ones being at risk of droughts and fires.
“While the low lying areas will be subject to that sea level rise and future flooding and changes in weather patterns, our inland areas will be just as at risk so that resulted in the iwi doing a whole lot of forward planning to understand what the future might have in store and then have an action plan where we can start to respond and mitigate and adapt to the things we know are ahead of us,” Ms Tumahai says.
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