The History of Te Wai Māori

Te Wai Māori Trustee Limited (Te Wai Māori) is a statutory body and a product of the Māori Fisheries Act 2004.

In the initial years after the passing of the Act, the work programme of Te Wai Māori was dominated by work scoping both freshwater fisheries and Māori interests.

This baseline work provided an important foundation.

Since then major projects undertaken by Te Wai Māori have sought to build on this by undertaking specific exemplar research projects jointly with iwi and hapū, working on:

  • legal issues concerning water ownership
  • acting as a clearing house for information to iwi and hapū (eg indigenous fisheries; species information; research; information templates)
  • contributing to eel aquaculture discussions
  • participating in policy development areas which impact significantly on both freshwater fisheries and Māori interests