THE WAY WE WERE

 

 

SO WHAT'S THE FUTURE FOR THE SELWYN RIVER..?  COULD THE ANSWER LIE NEXT DOOR? WAIREWA, OR LAKE FORSYTH, IS SO POLLUTED SOME SAY ITS DYING - SOME EVEN SAY IT'S ALREADY DEAD.  IT'S WHERE MY FAMILY HAVE HAD A BACH FOR GENERATIONS AND TONIGHT I WANT TO TAKE YOU THERE TO FIND OUT HOW IT GOT SO BAD, AND WHETHER THERE'S ANY HOPE FOR TURNING AROUND A POISONED WATERWAY...

 

 

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Music - A Delicate Light

 

FX

 

VX: MOON COMING OUT FROM CLOUD

 

VX: MIRIAMA AND TE REREHUA PUTTING BATTERIES INTO TORCHES 

 

Upsot Miriama: We're gonna need this torch for our night time adventure ...

 

V/O: WHEN I WAS A KID ...

 

Upsot Te Rerehua: Let's turn it on mummy and see if it works aye ...

 

V/O: EELING WAS A TIME HONOURED TRADITION IN MY FAMILY …

 

VX: MIRIAMA, TE REREHUA AND MARY WALKING ACROSS YARD WITH TORCHES

 

Upsot Miriama: This is just like what mummy used to do when I was your age ... we'd put our warm clothes on and head down to the lake with our torches.

 

VX: MIRIAMA, TE REREHUA AND MARY WALKING DOWN TO LAKE

 

V/O: CRUNCHING STONES UNDERFOOT, THE WHIPPING WIND, FLASHING TORCHES … A SPECIAL TIME BUT NOT UNIQUE ... GENERATIONS HAD GONE BEFORE AND WE WERE JUST ONE OF MANY EELING FAMILIES ...

 

VX: REFLECTION OF TORCHES IN WATER - WS OF ALL THREE STANDING AT EDGE OF DRAIN

 

Upsot Miriama: ... you remember this mum we'd lay on the stones and you'd tell us stories ... and we'd look at the beautiful stars ... and it was very magical ... everybody else was catching eels and if we talked too loudly they'd say sshhh quiet.. can you imagine that?

 

Fade to black

 

Music & FX

 

PTC: But when the sun rises tomorrow we won't have any eels, in fact there's no telling when we'll feel safe to have eels at day-break ever again.

 

Music - Calm Meditation 

 

FX

 

VX: DAWN BREAKING OVER LAKE & GVS OF GREEN WATER

 

V/O: THIS IS WAIREWA, OR LAKE FORSYTH, TODAY ... IT MAY LOOK BENIGN, BUT IT'S POISONED AND POISONOUS, RIFE WITH BLUE-GREEN ALGAE ...

 

IAEAN: ... if someone fell in and ingested probably 5mls of the nodulera blue green algae ... they would have liver trouble ... and possibly if they ingested enough it could you know cause death.

 

MIRIAMA: So people could die getting in that lake?

 

IAEAN: They could.

 

VX: MIRI AND IAEAN WALKING DOWN TO LAKE EDGE & THEN LOOKING OUT

 

V/O: IAEAN CRANWELL IS A NGAI TAHU TANGATA TIAKI OR GUARDIAN OF WAIREWA AND AN ENVIRONMENT CANTERBURY COUNCILLOR - WHICH CONTROLS THE LAKE WITH DOC, MPI, AND CHRISTCHURCH CITY COUNCIL - BUT IAEAN'S RUNANGA, WAIREWA, FEEL THE WEIGHT OF RESPONSIBILITY.

 

MIRIAMA: Is this lake dying?

 

IAEAN: ... this is who we are this lake.  if this lake dies, you know, us as tangata tiaki, us as kaitiaki, we haven't done our job.

 

Music & FX

 

VX: NGAI TAHU EELING VIDEO

 

V/O: THIS IS THE LAKE AT ITS WORST ... GREEN SLUDGE, DYING EELS ...

..BUT TO TRULY UNDERSTAND THE WORST OF TIMES ... YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE BEST...

 

FX

 

MASSES OF MIGRATING EELS MADE WAIREWA AN IMPORTANT AND FAMOUS FOODBASKET FOR LOCAL MAORI ... THE TRADITIONS MY FAMILY FOLLOW OF MAHINGA KAI, THE GATHERING AND SHARING OF FISH AND BIRDLIFE ... WERE SET OVER HUNDREDS OF YEARS ...

 

VX: MARY, MIRIAMA & RAY LOOKING AT PHOTOS AROUND TABLE

 

Upsot Miriama: And there's Uncle Jim ... that was in the days when there were plenty of eels about ...

 

V/O: MY DAD RAYNOL, FIRST BROUGHT MY MUM MARY OUT TO THE LAKE WHEN SHE WAS JUST 20 YEARS OLD.

 

Upsot Miriama: Ooh look at that one, racy lady outside the old bach ...

 

V/O: AND MUM'S WANTED TO PROTECT IT EVER SINCE ...

 

Upsot Miriama: What's this ... this is the story of you getting becoming a bit of an activist on the lakefront ... 1983.

Mary: Remember the wee dog Goldie?

Miriama: Yeah.

 

PTC: So the first sign for us as a family that something was seriously wrong on this lake was about 30 odd years ago we took the dingy out and we had our dog Goldie with us in the boat she jumped out and had a bit of a swim and when we got back to shore she was completely covered in some green stuff we had no idea what it was we washed her off but a few days later she was dead.

 

VX: MARY, MIRIAMA & RAY LOOKING AT PHOTOS AROUND TABLE

 

Upsot Mary: I don't think we've got any photos of Goldie.

Miriama: There is that not her? That's Goldie isn't it?

Mary: No, Goldie was a little wee thing ...

 

V/O: MUM RANG THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES, BUT WASN'T THRILLED WITH THEIR LACK OF URGENCY ...

 

Upsot Mary: So I phoned them to tell them what had happened ...and he said oh it's only dangerous to mammals ...

Miriama: Don't worry ... no dad, mammals ... only dangerous to Maoris [laughter] ... You'd have been in big trouble eh Dad, hahaha

Mary: But what bothered me was that there were no warning signs ...

Miriama: ... but you got your sign.

Mary: Got the sign yeah one sign [LAUGHS] so I was not impressed ...

 

VX: BIRDLINGS FLAT SIGN - MAIN WARNING SIGN

 

V/O: MUM'S SMALL SIGN ON THE ROAD INTO BIRDLINGS FLAT IS LONG GONE ... BUT NOW ...THERE IS A BIG FLASH SIGN RIGHT BY THE WATER, WARNING OF THE DANGERS.  

 

IAEAN: We've had, you know, stock, sheep, cows ... family pets etc die from, from ingesting water from the lake.

 

MIRIAMA: how bad is it right now, i mean, Is this the worst that it's ever been?

 

IAEAN: ... in March last year it was worse ... but it's the first time I've ever seen that affect the lake the whole year and talking to our kaumatua, it's the first time for them as well.

 

VX: 2016 & 2017 LAKE GVS

 

V/O: SO WHAT CAUSED THESE PROBLEMS? WELL, UNLIKE THE SELWYN RIVER, AFFLICTED BY NITRATES, WAIREWA'S POLLUTION IS CAUSED MAINLY BY PHOSPHORUS FROM VOLCANIC SOIL ... WHEN THE HILLS WERE STRIPPED OF TREES TO HELP BUILD CHRISTCHURCH AND MAKE WAY FOR FARMS

 

IAEAN: It's a legacy issue ... when the lake was deforested 160 years ago you know, when you cut the trees down and it rains ... where does all the sediment go?  It'll go down to the rivers and into the lake ... so we might have in some areas one metre to 1.5 metres of phosphorus sludge on the bottom of our lake.

 

VX: DRONE FOOTAGE OF LAKE

 

V/O: IN FACT, THINGS HAVE BECOME SO CHRONIC THAT THE DAY BEFORE WE FILMED, A RAHUI WAS PUT ON THE LAKE ... AN UNPRECEDENTED ACTION BANNING PEOPLE FROM TAKING ANY EELS, ANY TUNA. IN ESSENCE, PUTTING A STOP TO MAHINGA KAI.

 

VX: NGAI TAHU FOOTAGE

 

IAEAN: The tuna is who we are here ... to not have a, a season is ... it makes the the heart cry ... our tipuna would be turning. 

 

Music: Muriwai B

 

VX: MIRIAMA UNDER WHATA WITH CHARLIE

 

Upsot Miriama: So this these are your gaffes here Charlie these are pretty flash.

Charlie: Yeah but that's what they call ... space age technology.

Miriama:  Yeah that's right ... cause we used to have wooden ones.

 

VX: CHARLIE ON FARM BIKE

 

V/O: CHARLIE ZIMMERMAN IS, LIKE IAEAN, A TANGATA TIAKI OF THE LAKE ... EVERYDAY HE PATROLS THESE DRAINS ... DUG BY EELERS TO CATCH TUNA AS THEY MIGRATE TO THE SEA ... CHARLIE'S KEEN TO KEEP THE OLD WAYS ALIVE ... BUT IT'S A CHALLENGE WITH A RAHUI IN PLACE ...

 

VX: MIRIAMA AND CHARLIE BY DRAIN

 

MIRIAMA: That kind of boggles the brain really because for me Wairewa and Birdlings has always been about the eeling.

 

CHARLIE: ... I know it'll upset a lot of eelers but it's what we need to do to keep people safe from going ahead and help themselves.

 

MIRIAMA: Will you miss eeling?

 

CHARLIE: Oh for sure for sure you know this is the second year in a row that I haven't taken eels so my freezer's getting a little bit slim ...

 

PTC: So if it's polluted, dying, dead, is that the end ... or is there hope?  There are some who say that Wairewa could be the model, for how to transform and save a poisoned and dying waterway.

 

Music & FX

 

IAEAN: We seen a lot of people talk the talk, but we thought no, we're going to walk the walk, you know we've probaby put in over a million dollars into this project but we're not finished.

 

VX: DRONE FOOTAGE SHOWING CANAL - NGAI TAHU VIDEO

 

OVERLAY IAEAN: What we have done we believe is unique in Aotearoa New Zealand ...

 

V/O: THEIR SOLUTION ... BIO ENGINEERING ... INCLUDING THIS CANAL, ALLOWING THEM TO OPEN AND FLUSH THE LAKE ... AND TWO YEARS AGO, THINGS WERE LOOKING GOOD ... AQUATIC PLANT LIFE WAS FLOURISHING ... BUT THEN A FLOOD BROUGHT DOWN EVEN MORE SEDIMENT ... THE QUESTION NOW - WHETHER TO DREDGE ...?

 

IAEAN: It's the only way of getting rid of the phosphorus...  there's a hundred mill fresh water fund out there at the moment, we only need $20 million ...

 

MIRIAMA: so how realistic is it then?

 

IAEAN: Well I mean, maybe you can do bits over time ...

 

MIRIAMA: if you didn't do anything how close, if you didn't do anything how close to death is this lake?

 

02:24:50:00 

IAEAN: um we had one scientist say well it's, with all coastal lakes it'll eventually, you know, get so shallow and then it'll just turn into a kind of a swampy anyway.  But I was like no, no, no, no, we don't want that. We don't want that legacy on us, you know,

 

VX: GVS AROUND LAKE

 

IAEAN: We need to fence all the streams ... fence off the rivers and plant ... we want it swimmable, but probably more than that we want it fit for Mahika Kai ... we want a new standard called Mahika Kai.  

 

Music: Ariana Tikao - Titi Whakatai Arorua

 

MIRIAMA: How do you feel when you when you stand here and and look at the lake?

IAEAN: I love it ... when you're laying down on the shingle when you go eeling ... you could imagine your tupuna being here and and doing the same thing ... nothing's changed you know if you can't put food on ... the plate to feed your whanau I mean what's the point?

 

Music & FX

 

VX: CHARLIE & MIRIAMA WITH EEL IN HIS KITCHEN.

 

CHARLIE: ... for me it's important that our Kaumatuas are looked after ... our visitors or manuhiri ... that they do go away with a feed.

 

MIRIAMA: So where'd you dig this up from?

 

CHARLIE: Out of my freezer.

 

MIRIAMA: [Laughter] This is like gold ...You wouldn't want to be eating that any time soon, ration it out ...

 

CHARLIE: Bit at a time, bit at a time ...

 

MIRIAMA: I keep getting whiffs of my childhood [laughter] ... I remember walking through the whata through the drying racks and all the eels hanging down and oh it was so cool ...

 

CHARLIE: It's good having those memories ...

 

MIRIAMA:  it is, yeah

 

Music

 

FX

 

VX: MIRIAMA, TE REREHUA & MARY WALKING DOWN TO BEACH

 

V/O: THE HOPE IS ... WAIREWA'S TRADITIONS DON'T BECOME JUST THAT ... MEMORIES ...

 

Upsot Miriama: You used to see eels coming from the lake to the ocean?

Mary: ... it was like two black ropes stretching right across ... and I ran back to the old bach and told all the guys and they all jumped up and grabbed their gaffs and headed out.

Miriama: [LAUGHS] Really? Totally took advantage of the eel migration.

Mary: Absolutely.

Miriama: I thought you were gonna say they all were like oh my gosh let's go and see instead they grabbed their gaffs ...

 

VX: 3 FACES IN PROFILE LOOKING AT SEA

 

Thought track Miriama: I sometimes wonder if Te Rerehua ... when she has her own children ... if there are gonna be eels in that lake if there's gonna be a lake even to visit.

Mary:That would be my hope.  

 

Music: Muriwai A

 

VX: RECAP PREVIOUS SEQUENCES

 

V/O: SO WHY ARE THESE WATERWAYS ARE IMPORTANT  ... THEY SUSTAIN US. THE LAKES AND RIVERS REPRESENT OUR WAY OF LIFE. THE MEMORIES WE MAKE. THE TRADITIONS WE HOLD DEAR ....

 

VX: TE REREHUA & MIKE BUILDING WITH DRIFTWOOD

 

V/O: AND HOPE TO PASS ONTO OUR CHILDREN AND THEIRS ...

 

Upsot Te Rerehua: we just keep doing it dadda remember we don't give up ...

 

VX: WS WALKING ALONG BEACH

 

V/O: AND IF WE CAN'T KEEP THEM ALIVE...

 

VX: WS WALKING ALONG BEACH - 3S FROM BEHIND AS TE REREHUA GIVES MARY A KISS

 

Thought track Mary: It would break my heart Miriama it would break my heart we've got such a history here ... not just for my children but for so many people who brought their children up out here.

Miriama: So you gotta have hope.

Mary: Absolutely.

 

 

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BACK ANNOUNCE...

THE RAHUI REMAINS IN PLACE, AND TOMORROW THE LAKE WILL BE OPENED TO THE SEA TO ALLOW THE EELS TO BEGIN THEIR MIGRATION.

IN FUTURE, NGAI TAHU HOPES TO GAIN OWNERSHIP OF THE LAKE-BED FROM DOC.