Scarlett Philips preparing to take part in the fish biodiversity survey Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
A South Wairarapa riverside farm is turning into a rich classroom, offering lessons in science and the environment, maths, language, and legends of the land.
Over the past few months, local schoolchildren have been heading down to the lower reaches of the Ruamāhanga River, bordering Ruamāhanga Farm.
They look for insects and fish, help to plant trees on its wetland, and sometimes just sit on its banks and listen to its stories.
When Country Life tags along, the morning starts as usual with karakia and children taking pretend snapshots of the landscape, describing their "photos" and introducing themselves.
Then, after being warned about electric fences, with gumboots and backpacks on, a happy scramble of nine to 11-year-olds heads off through the paddocks and down to the banks of the awa.
Sitting on eco-friendly woollen tree mats, looking out over the river, they tune into a story about the water's journey, with the noisy calls of real birds swooping over its banks woven into the kōrero.
The owners of Ruamāhanga Farm hope to see 15 hectares restored to wetland and riparian forest Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Storyteller Rod Sugden says he tries to incorporate real-life happenings into the tales to keep the story lively and the children engaged.
"We feel that these stories convey hidden messages, you could say, stories that can give children and young people a deeper sense of themselves, others around them and the world in which they live."
Later, the children file down onto the gravelly riverbed and meet Kara Kenny and Maddy Glover from the conservation charity Mountains to Sea Wellington.
Storytelling on the banks of the awa takes into account what's actually happening too Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Soon, they are all crammed around buckets of river water, identifying tiny fish and river insects and learning the difference between mayflies and stoneflies through an action game.
Measuring water clarity with long pipes is a lesson in maths as well as science. Later, language and poetry will come to the fore when the children write about their experiences back in the classroom or in the new bell tent set up on the farm.
Kenny says her own childhood memories exploring the region's rivers with her grandfather sparked her interest in freshwater ecology.
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She loves tailoring her riverbank lessons to the "ebbs and flows" of whatever has happened, even if things don't quite go to plan.
After fish traps set the night before for a biodiversity survey were found to be empty of eels and trout, she switched to explaining the phases of the moon and told a Māori legend involving the maramataka.
"We kind of make it more basic for the kids to kind of interact with their environment to create memories and even spark an interest.
Kara Kenny of Mountains to Sea Wellington Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
"I feel like if they can see, feel, touch and use all of their senses, then that's really valuable for their education, so if we can harness all the different aspects of what the river can give to us, and learn more about it, that enacts kaitiakitanga within our tamariki, which is awesome."
The Ruamāhanga Farm Foundation was set up by the farm's owners, the Riddiford family, in 2021, with the aim of restoring the 107-hectare farm's wetland and riparian forest, opening areas up to local people by creating a riverside walkway, and providing children and young people with learning opportunities.
Inspired by three lonely-looking kahikatea trees in what she thought was just a ditch on the farm, Jane Riddiford is driving the project, which also involves her sisters Liz and Lucy, their 99-year-old mother Yvonne and Jane's husband Rod Sugden.
Rod Sugden and Jane Riddiford Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
They are drawing on all their skills, including Riddiford's decades-long work in environmental education overseas, including creating community gardens in inner-city London.
The farm restoration plan was hatched when she and Sugden returned to New Zealand during the pandemic.
"It was during that time that a vision grew between all of us and we started paying attention not only to the river, but to the small pockets of remnant bush that are on the farm."
The plan extended from there to include learning opportunities and the idea for a walkway, still in the planning process.
Measuring for water clarity on the banks of the Ruamāhanga Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Riddiford says the kahikatea in the ditch seemed like "sentinels", representing Jane and her two sisters, and the farm's future and past.
"We realised that what we had kind of thought of as a drain was actually an oxbow of the river and that the river would have meandered all across here.
"We suddenly thought, gosh, what would it be like if we restored the wetland?
"We began to think of the three kahikatea as the three sisters ... they were like sentinels of what was and what might once again be."
