For those who joined over a hundred others at the Wairarapa Moana Wetlands Project open day at Lake Domain near Featherston on Sunday, chances are they will never be able to look at an ‘old piece of drift wood’ the same way again.

In one of the more distinctive displays at Whakarongo ki te taiao, acclaimed kiwi musician Warren Maxwell resurrected the remains of a fallen totara tree found at Wairarapa Moana, transforming the log into a musical instrument.

Stretching strings to a section and fixing stereo contact mics linking to an effects pedal and PA system, he literally fused an old log with new technologies. The result, an eerily sound of murmurs and vibrations that helped to unlock some of the mystery of this once magnificent tree and the land it stood in.

Excited rangatahi (young people) experimenting with the sounds of “Koro”, (the name Mr Maxwell has given the old totara log), captured the essence of Whakarongo ki te taiao, which translates to “feeling the land’s rhythms”.

The free community event was a chance to celebrate Wairarapa Moana’s recognition as an ‘internationally significant’ wetland under the Ramsar Convention, announced in August last year.

Wairarapa Moana is one of the largest remaining wetland complexes in New Zealand.

Nine organisations, many of them NGOs, who are working to restore Wairarapa Moana to its former glory, had stalls with engaging displays. There was also live music and interactive artworks including installations from local artists Siv Fjaerestad, Sam Ludden and of course Warren Maxwell.

A recognised driving force behind many musical projects, Mr Maxwell says he came up with his idea as a way to indigenise his music practice and “reconnect to the natural world”.

"I have been really lucky to have been brought up using western music pedagogy, but my Maori indigenous side is going, ‘what did my ancestors use to inspire music’. So I want to augment my very privileged music background with researching indigenous stuff.”

Mr Maxwell found the log washed up on the shore where the Tauherenikau River enters Lake Wairarapa. “He feels like a Koro to me, an old grandpa,” says Mr Maxwell.

Speaking at Sunday’s event, Greater Wellington Wairarapa Committee Chair and councillor Adrienne Staples says the vision of the Wairarapa Moana Wetlands Project, which began in 2007, is to ensure this taonga is cherished as a place of cultural and historical significance that inspires future generations.

Cr Staples says the next step is the development of a “master plan” which will include community input to ensure maximum progress can be made.

Over recent years input has come from far and wide, including Victoria University’s school of landscape architecture which five years ago came up with some concept designs for various beautification projects around the Moana. Some of these were on display at a stall hosted by Rawiri Smith of Kahungunu ki Wairarapa.

Mr Smith says that he hopes that one day they might become a reality, pointing to the various funding initiatives announced last year earmarked for Wairarapa Moana including $3.5 million from the Ministry of the Environment through the Jobs for Nature programme, which is scaling up restoration efforts at wetlands.

Showing what a collective effort can achieve was Featherston-based group, Pae Tū Mokai o Tauira, who last year undertook a planting project at the entrance to the Lake Domain Reserve.

Spokesperson Narida Hooper says they used the Hugelkultur technique which works by burying woody materials under the soil, then growing plants on top or between the buried trenches.

The wood in the bed acts as a sponge, providing moisture to the plants and the decomposing wood continually providing nutrients.

The project has been hugely successful with nearly all of the plantings thriving in the harsh conditions, and now providing habitat for mighty totara, the likes of Warren Maxwell’s koro, to once again stand tall over this wetland treasure.

The Wairarapa Moana Wetlands Project is a collaboration between Ngāti Kahugnunu ki Wairarapa, Rangitāne o Wairarapa, the Department of Conservation, South Wairarapa District Council and Greater Wellington.

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