Wakatū Incorporation director Miriana Stephens Photo: Supplied / Wakatū Incorporation
A summit is being held in Nelson this week to help people consider how to be good ancestors, in the face of increasing challenges.
Wakatū Incorporation director Miriana Stephens said the aim of the Tūpuna Pono event series was to unite the community.
It kicked off over the weekend with rangatahi taking part in a "climate hackathon" to look at different initiatives to build resilience.
A summit event to discuss the big issues facing the region and share success stories was held on Tuesday.
It included discussion about existing initiatives in the region that were focused on food security, biodiversity restoration and sustainability.
The series will culminate in a debate with business pioneer Sir Ian Taylor.
"We've got the inaugural Tūpuna Pono debate happening on Thursday evening where they'll be debating - is it too late to be a good ancestor and what would it take to turn that around? We are wanting to discuss some of the big issues in the region, but also have some fun."
Stephens said the genesis for the summit came from the work on the Te Tauihu Intergenerational Strategy - a collaboration between iwi, local government, business and the community with a focus on the social, cultural, environmental and economic development across the Top of the South.
After a pandemic and several severe weather events, Stephens said it was a good time to re-consider what people needed to do to be good ancestors.
"What do we want to see in the region in the next 100 years, what project initiatives do we get behind as communities? The regional strategy outlined that programme of work and we really want to celebrate, over the next week, the initiatives that have just come from the strategy - around the wellbeing of our people and our places to ensure prosperity."
Danes share their ideas
A delegation from Lemvig in Denmark are in Nelson for the week and will be meeting with organisations to discuss resilience and look at climate adaption opportunities.
Four years ago, Wakatū Incorporation, Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa Trust and the Nelson City Council engaged with the central Denmark region in a bid to learn from their world leading sustainability, climate and resilience initiatives.
Stephens said the relationship has gone from strength to strength and there is now a proposal to build a climatorium, or climate change centre, in Nelson, based on the Lemvig Klimatorium.
"We do have a tendency to work in silos in this country, so to be able to bring teams together to be working on the challenges we're facing and problem solve them... it's the intention of the climatorium that we would set up here in the region.
"We have a real opportunity to leave a good legacy for the current and future generations to come, to be a good steward from an environmental perspective and also a social, cultural, and also economic perspective."
It was hoped that Tūpuna Pono could be an annual event, encouraging the region to consider a collaborative, intergenerational approach to the challenges it faced.