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Ngā Kaitiaki o Ngā Wai Māori

Pattern: hapū kaupapa → repeat field observations → structured environmental data → GIS/map communication.

Ngā Kaitiaki o Ngā Wai Māori is a collective of hapū kaitiaki working in the Wairua catchment in Te Tai Tokerau. Its public StoryMap combines whakapapa and environmental history with mapped wetlands, waterways, monitoring sites and restoration/fish-passage work.

What is publicly documented​

The StoryMap describes five hapū working across a shared waterway and documents a substantial monitoring programme. As published in the project StoryMap, the team monitors water quality monthly at 38 sites, conducts fish surveys, uses eDNA at 24 sites, assesses fish-passage barriers and is developing digital field collection using Survey123.

The project website also identifies GIS capability within the team and continues to publish 2026 field-work updates.

Why this matters to another hapū or taiao team​

The important lesson is not the software brand. The spatial system grows from a monitoring programme with stable places, repeated visits and clear environmental questions.

A practical data model for similar mahi is:

Conceptual flow

That is the same reason MāoriGIS.nz separates monitoring sites from repeat observations.

Spatial layers visible in the public story​

The StoryMap uses public environmental/geographic context such as:

  • wetlands
  • river networks
  • catchments
  • monitoring locations
  • fish-passage work

The public mapping sits inside a much wider explanation of why the waterways and tuna matter to the hapū. The GIS does not become the explanation by itself.

Field GIS lesson​

A team considering Survey123, KoboToolbox, QField or Field Maps can borrow the project pattern:

  1. define stable monitoring-site IDs
  2. standardise repeat observations
  3. collect dates/measurements/photos in a field form
  4. synchronise/export
  5. quality-check records in GIS
  6. relate measurements back to catchment and restoration context
  7. use maps to plan the next round of mahi

See Field GIS and KoboToolbox for alternative tool patterns.

Storytelling lesson​

The public StoryMap is strong because monitoring data is not shown as an isolated dashboard. It explains the historical changes to repo and tuna, the reason the collective formed, the monitoring activities and the people doing the work.

For another taiao team, that suggests a useful communication structure:

why → whenua/wai context → method → mapped work → measured change → next mahi

rather than opening with a chart.

What this case does not tell us​

The public material does not expose the full internal database design, all field attributes or every spatial layer the collective holds. MāoriGIS.nz does not infer those details.

Try the pattern​

Use the Awa restoration worked example and its downloadable monitoring pack, then adapt the structure to the measures and places relevant to the actual taiao programme.

Primary sources​

Last reviewed: 26 August 2026

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