[The words: "Ka ora te whenua, ka ora te tāngata. When the land is well, the people are well" appear in front of an image of sunlight shining through the branches and leaves of trees in a forest. White logos for Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service and the Ministry of Primary Industries appear under the text.]
Pā: My goal in life is that when my time finally runs out that the world will be a better place because I’ve been here.
[Text on screen: Pā Rōpata McGowan. Rongoā Practitioner and Kaiako, co-founder of Tāne’s Tree Trust, Poukōrero mō Tiwaiwaka, Bay Conservation Alliance, Queen’s Service Medal.]
[A close up shows a tree trunk with leaves in the background and sunlight shining through them. Pā stands in the forest at an angle.]
Pā: You know, and that to me is the ultimate ambition. You know, the saying goes kua ngarongaro he tangata toitū te whenua. You know, we come, mankind just passes through, but the land remains forever.
[Pā walks deep in to the forest, he is surrounded by silhouettes of tree trunks and vines. Branches, leaves and mossy rocks cover the forest floor. A mix of native trees, ferns and plants shine green from the sunlight in the background.]
Pā: Kia ora tatou, mihi nui ki a koutou e whakarongo mai, titiro mai ki a mātou I tēnei wā. Ko Pā Rōpata tēnei tū mai e kōrero mai ki a koutou.
[Pā stands in the forest at an angle.]
Pā: My name, I have 2 names in actual fact, one is Pā Rōpata and that actually refers back to the days when I was, for many years, a catholic priest working with Māori. Uh, and my other name is Rob McGowan, and I tried to stop being called Pā but everyone calls me that anyway, hei aha tēnā.
[There is an overhead view of the landscape surrounding Pā’s land. Dark hills line the background, while green fields and a mixture of trees are at the front. Houses are dotted throughout the landscape and a road disappears into the trees. A low mist hangs around the trees and houses.]
[A mountain, maunga Kōpukairua, is covered in dark green trees. Pā’s house and land are at the bottom of the mountain. Mount Maunganui is in the distance, surrounded by water.]
[Text on screen: maunga Kōpukairua, Waitao, I te rohe ō Ngāti Pūkenga.]
Pā: So, we’re here in Tauranga Moana. And the rohe are o Ngāti Pūkenga. At the foot of a maunga that stands here for Kōpukairua. And that’s a very, very special mountain in terms of Tauranga moana, in terms of the people who belong here.
[Pā stands in the forest at an angle.]
Pā: So, we’ve lived in this place here for 21 years.
[A landscape view shows Pā’s house and land at the bottom of maunga Kōpukairua. The camera slowly zooms in on the area, showing the dense, green trees that surround the property and are on the mountain.]
Pā: When we came here, it had been used as a farm. There had been forestry here. There wasn’t much kai, there were no fruit trees here. So, I didn’t feel very much at home here because there wasn’t many things around here that I could connect to.
[There is a close up of shaded trees. The sunlight catches the leaves in the background, giving them a green glow. Water droplets hang and glisten from some of the leaves and branches of the trees.]
Pā: So really, the first thing I started to do was… let’s make this place beautiful again.
[Text on screen: Kauri]
[A close up of kauri leaves and branches. The leaves are narrow and overlap with leaves on other branches. Sunlight shines through the leaves.]
[Pā stands in the forest at an angle.]
Pā: Now at the time when we shifted here, I was working for the University of Waikato, teaching an introduction to traditional Māori medicine – rongoā Māori.
[Text on screen: Ponga (silver fern)]
[A close up of the top of a ponga tree, showing lots of small, narrow leaves on the branches.]
[Text on screen: Mauku (chickens fern)]
[A close up of mauku leaves – two branches show rows of small leaves.]
Pā: What I was finding is... most of the plants I needed for medicine weren’t actually here. And I had trouble finding them – lots of kawakawa and that was about it. So, I started planting… all the plants I needed for rongoā.
[Text on screen: Makomako (wineberry)]
[A close up shows the leaves of a makomako tree. The leaves have spikey edges.]
Pā: So, I didn’t have to go traipsing into the bush to find it. And then I began to realise, in actual fact, the purpose of these plants actually isn’t to provide me with rongoā, but to actually bring the land back again. More and more and more I began to have an appreciation.
[Text on screen: Tī kōuka (cabbage tree).]
[A close up shows cabbage trees with spikey leaves.]
[Text on screen: Matai (black pine).]
[A close up of a matai tree with small leaves on thin branches.]
Pā: Personally, that was really affecting me that the land was in big trouble. And that’s when really the dots started to be connected.
[An overhead shot shows a mixture of native trees.]
[Pā walks in the bush.]
Pā: So, I learn by actually doing things.
[Pā holds a stick and walks through a gate. He points to something with his stick. Pā and a friend walk through the forest, with Pā guiding the way. A dog runs next to them.]
[Pā is in a dense area of forest. Pā walks down some steps, using his stick for support.]
[The camera zooms out to show the forest surrounding Pā. Dark, shadowy trees, branches and ferns surround the edges. Pā walks in the background with his stick, while his dog runs up to him. Mossy rocks, branches and leaves are on the forest floor. In the background the leaves from layers of different trees catch the sunlight.]
Pā: This part of the bush, was here already, but there used to be goats all the way through here, they came almost right up to the house. There was virtually no undergrowth here at all.
[Pā is walking through the trees, branches and leaves create a frame around the camera.]
Pā: All the māhoe, all the porokaiwhiri, all the hangihangi, those ones which normally are… weren’t there at all.
[Text on screen: Kawakawa (pepper tree)]
[Close up of kawakawa leaves.]
Pā: You know, and it wasn’t until, the goats were removed that the bush started to come back by itself. And that’s something that, somehow, we’ve really got to appreciate, get people to appreciate, just how actually those understory plants are the ones that actually keep the land alive. They keep the moisture in and all those sorts of things like this.
[An overhead shot shows a mixture of native trees.]
[Pā talks to the camera.]
Pā: I planted kauri trees at spaces of about 3-4 metres but to accelerate their growth rates I actually planted a kanuka between each two kauri.
[Text on screen: Kauri]
[A close up of kauri leaves and branches. The leaves are narrow.]
Pā: They grow quickly but they don’t grow tall. So, the kanuka matched the growth rates of the kauri for a couple of decades. And then as the kauri form the canopy the kanuka have started to die out. You know and so if you look around you’ll find that some of the kanuka have already died but in the meantime the kauri have established and really gone for it.
[Pā holds the branches of a smaller kauri tree and talks to the camera.]
Pā: So this kauri here is 21 years old. The same age as the big, big ones up on the hill but you can see that its actually in a shaded place and very rarely does it get the sun on top of it. And so the tree is biding its time. In this area here and close by there’s probably at least 50 kauri trees most of them about the same age.
[Text on screen: Umbrella Fern]
[A close up shows lots of small umbrella ferns.]
Pā: I think the biggest success is that I’ve ended up with a beautiful forest in much less time that people expected.
[Pā talks to the camera.]
Pā: One of the myths we have is that native trees are hard to grow.
[Pā walks through the forest with his stick.]
Pā: That is a myth. Some things are going to be a bit tricky with. You’ve gotta let the trees tell you how they like to grow. But what I’ve found was, if I propagated the trees myself, grew as many as I wanted and gave the rest away. I grow them and not plant them until they’re taller than the weeds.
[The footage shows lots of trays of seedlings that Pā is growing. Pā is looking at some of the seedlings and picks up a totara plant.]
Pā: So instead of planting a totara at 30cm, I wait until its 3 feet tall or taller. They grow amazingly quickly.
[Pā talks to the camera.]
Pā: As well as working full time and building your house and doing all sorts of things. I could grow and plant 1000 trees a year and it would cost me 50 cents a tree. And that was the cost of the planter bag, and I could reuse those, and the potting mix.
Pā: My most important job is to make sure the gifts of knowledge I’ve been entrusted with continue to be passed on in a way that they can keep growing and becoming more rich, bringing the whenua back.
[Pā is sitting at a table in his house talking to a friend. Books about forests are in the bookcase.]
Pā: New Zealand is actually a forest country. Our water is kept well by the forest. We actually need to care for the whenua and restore the forest for our land to be well again and the lifestyle that we treasure to be able to last past our generation.
[Pā and his friend walk into the forest.]
[Text on the screen says: E mihi atu ana a Pā ki ngā tohunga ō te Awa Tupua, ō Ngāti Whātua, ō Ngāti Kahungunu, ō Tauranga Moana, ō te Tairāwhiti, mō ō rātou mōhiotanga i tuku mai.
Pā Rōpata McGowan would like to acknowledge elders of Whanganui, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Kahungunu, Tauranga Moana, and Te Tairāwhiti for the rongoā knowledge passed to him.]
[A green background appears, text on it says: Visit the Canopy website to learn more about planting trees. Canopy.govt.nz.]
[Logos for the Ministry of Primary Industries and Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service appear in front of a green background. Text on the screen says: Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service is part of the Ministry for Primary Industries.]
