Acknowledgements
We are indebted to many people whose contribution made the development of the Cultural Health Index possible. The reward for their involvement is a new tool that holds much potential for promoting the input and participation of Māori into natural resource management. In particular, Colin Townsend has provided ongoing advice about study design, analysis and documentation throughout the study. It is hard to see how this project would have progressed to where it is without Colin's support and direction.
University of Otago Stream Team
Professor Colin Townsend
Dev Ngogi
Chris Arbuckle
Christoph Matthaei
The coordinators of our fieldwork
Dr Terry Broad who aside from being a good friend was the coordinator for part of the Taieri and Kakaunui.
Isaac Russell undertook interviews with members of Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua and coordinated the Ashburton fieldwork. Remote controlling a project from a distance is difficult but Isaac made sure the project progressed without incident.
Jenny Mauger undertook interviews with whānau living in the Tukituki catchment and whānau who whakapapa to the Tukituki. Jenny also coordinated the fieldwork.
Other fieldworkers
Rose Clucas - Rose has been involved in some capacity through stages 1, 2 and 3 of this project. Her mahi is valued but her friendship is valued more.
Shannon Crow - helped with the MCI scores for the sites.
Our rūnanga stream teams
Te Rūnanga o Moeraki
Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua
Members from Ngāti Kahungunu
Ngāti Kahungunu - for support of the project and getting us underway we thank Ngahiwi Tomoana.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu - Linda Constable, Bob Penter, David O'Connell.
Hawkes Bay Regional Council - Brett Stanfield was instrumental in helping us choose the sites within the Tukituki and then providing the stream health data that was held by the Hawkes Bay Regional Council.
Environment Canterbury - Adrian Meridith made a valuable contribution identifying the sites in the Hakatere, collecting invertebrate samples for determining MCIs and sampling fish at all sites. His support was unstinting and advice given freely. We appreciated the help.
Ministry for the Environment - for believing our project was worth supporting and providing the resources that enabled us to deliver the Cultural Health Index for streams we are most grateful to those involved from the Ministry for the Environment.
Finally, thanks to all those who agreed to be interviewed and then a special thanks must go to those who took part in the training day and the field assessments. Without the data from their assessments this study could not have been completed.
