Tipu wai - a brief history

Tipu Waiāriki is led by Gregg Brown, a well-known local restauranteur and community leader in Rotorua who previously founded and chaired Rotorua Trails Trust. He owns a small Lake Okareka farm and is passionate about healing the land to cleanse the water. His frustration with the slow progress of planting in the Rotorua lakes catchment inspired him to bring together some key people to form a community nursery that will rely on eco-sourced plants, be nurtured by an at-risk Māori youth programme, and is underpinned by Te Arawa values of manaaki, mātauranga and aroha.

The goal of Tipu Waiāriki is to reconnect whenua to tangata: to cleanse both waimāori (living waters) and the wairua (spiritual essence) of our at-risk descendants. The tangata intersection with whenua by planting local endemic natives provides the requisite rongoā desperately required to heal and restore mauri (energy balance) as it flows from source springs into our lakes down rivers like the Kaituna through wetlands of the Maketū estuary and out to sea.

Tipu Waiāriki Values

Tipu Waiāriki Mission

To aid in the restoration of our waterways and native fish species and the enhancement of landscape aesthetics by growing & planting 100,000+ locally sourced native seedlings over the coming years.

Tipu Waiāriki

Tipu Waiāriki is a One World, One Health, One People – Whenua, Rongoā, Tangata focussed healing initiative.

It recognises that the health of people is deeply interconnected to the health of all species in an Aotearoa New Zealand context of shared responsibilities. It is a collaborative approach with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes for people, animals, plants and their shared environment.

Tipu means to grow, increase or prosper, Waiāriki is the catchment of focus, and Wai is the water, stream, creek and river. Tipu Wai is used as a shortened name for the project, bringing the prosperity and water together.

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