In social studies we have been doing the topic “managing the environment” here we understood about recourse renewable and non-renewable. A vital resource is water and we decided to focus on the documentary within Ngapuhi called “restoring the mauri of the lake Omapere, following is what I captured of the documentary.
The Maori had owned about 66 million acres of land. The white people stole their land all up to about 34 million was confiscated from the white people.And today the maori on have about 4 million acres left which is not good.The maori had a saying the saying was the name omapere which stand for kai for the belly of the taniwha.The lake was the food basket for ngapuhi. Ngapuhi had grabbed food from the lake for them and there whanau.There were about 2500 people that lived near the lake. And today there are know 80 maori people that live around lake Omapere.The lake was Ngapuhi bathroom it was there food like there pantree they fished up the eels they washed there selfs in the lake and they used there water to drink.
Pakeha did mass harvest of wood kahikatea , totara , kauri , Because of how close the trees were to Utakura river that was the best way to transport it to the Hokianga Harbour. After the felling of the native trees to clean the debris they burnt the land. Causing much ash and damage to the soil and killing everything else in its path. The impact that this left on the Whenua was devastating. Causing the Whenua to be infertile To any growth of anything , Seeping into the water ways creating poisons in our water. That the lake was in perfect condition until the mil staring to harvest trees and dropping the trees into the lake to be carried out to Hokianga Harbour through the lake’s current and they started transporting materials that were to sallow to be picked up by the current and that polluted the lake even more because of how dirty the animals were.
What did you like about the documentary? That is really good at showing explanations for the mauri of the lake and how the lake has been mistreated and disrespected .
What didn’t you like about the documentary?Mainly because in all the video parts of the documentary they were showing the previous evidence from part 1,2,3 and 4 , I viewed that as confusing and a waste of video time to demonstrate their explanation for the mauri of lake Omapere
I think that part 3 really did explain the Mauri of the lake and the problems of the lake. Research from the documentary says in the 1980s there used to be over 2000 residents staying around the lake and now there are less than 80 residents and in the 1980s there used to be 50 pound eels . The lake was used by many whanau for drinking water , washing water , water to feed their garden and recreational use , there used to be families of 8 coming to public gardens to load up of Kai , evidence from the documentaries shows that there used to be about a 2 car garage full of kai and the People wouldn’t count the Kumara , potatoes , carrots they will just load their trailers and head home and more evidence from the documentaries declares people would drive past past the remainder of the residents and they would close their curtains and make you feel unwelcome , The lake got so polluted because of the Pakeha started farming kauri and kahikatea trees and they recognized a fast earning but harming method , their method was to cut the kauri , Kahikatia trees into the lake and they would let the stream of the lake take the trees all the way through the Utakura stream all the way out to Hokianga Harbour. From watching this documentary i have learnt where lake Omapere is in ngapuhi and how it once thriving to now it being polluted i have a sense of frustration because future generations are only gonna ever know it as polluted waters as it has been many years. I think its important for the local maori people to have the resources,knowledge and putia to be able to restore the mauri of lake Omapere.
