Te Kakano o Te Waonui a Tane

The opportunity for the Matauri Bay community to develop a native plant nursery presented itself in 2008 with Nga Whenua Rahui (NWR) encouraging the community to apply for a grant to establish a new nursery. The Nga Whenua Rahui Fund supports the protection of indigenous biodiversity on Maori-owned land while honouring the rights guaranteed to land owners under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 

In October 2008  Matauri Community Trust, a non-profit charitable trust established to manage this and other community projects, was successful in obtaining the required NWR funding. A group of Matauri residents aptly named ‘friends of the nursery’ worked closely on all aspects of this project which included reviews of two established Nga Whenua Rahui nurseries at Matakana Island and Poroti. The new nursery was completed in 2010.  The nursery was named  ‘Nairis Community Nursery’ after Andrena Jones who was fondly known by her immediate family as Nairi. 

Nairi was an amazingly strong and brave woman who focussed on the protection and enhancement of hapu ancestral lands. Every seed and cutting planted and nurtured in the nursery holds the wairua of Nairi, as she lives in name and spirit as a true guardian of the whenua, a wahine toa. She will never be forgotten.

Today, Nairis Nursery is one of Te Tai Tokerau’s most respected and successful Native Plant Nurseries carrying a diverse range of native plants, and offering services and capability for small and large projects throughout the region.