Category: News

At the Kaurilands Summit 2023, early career researchers Colan Balkwill and Amy MacDonald presented new research on the conservation genetics of maire tawake and ramarama, two of our native myrtles. Both studies found higher genetic diversity in northern populations than southern populations. These results will be valuable for future seed banking and restoration activities.

With The Last of Us making cordyceps a household name, and many other evil moulds creeping through our screens and libraries, it seems that fungi and horror are a match made in… hell.

Aroha Novak (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Te Rangi) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Ōtepoti Dunedin and has added fertiliser to the fungal horror garden with her graphic novel, Myrtle Rust.

BioHeritage and Manaaki Whenua have co-funded an Unlocking Curious Minds project to develop Kiwi Kai, an evidence-based educational tool wrapped up in an online role-playing game. Playing as an up-and-coming farmer, the player aims to balance food production with caring for nature and their community.

The Mobilising for Action research theme is excited to announce that their special edition in the journal Knowledge Cultures is now out. Many excited congratulations to the team for their 13 peer-reviewed articles published in this edition.

Back in May last year, Maisie Hamilton Murray attended Crazy & Ambitious 3 and won the grand prize of flights and accommodation to Rakiura (Stewart Island) – somewhere she’d never previously set foot . . .

On Tuesday 9 May the Kaurilands Summit had a delayed start thanks to pūroro (driving rain). But by Friday, Rangi-nui had drawn the clouds aside, and let through the rays of Tama-nui-te-rā, the sun. Perfect timing for Kelly Kahukiwa’s field trip, ‘Reading mauri through the biophonic signature of the ngahere’.

Kerry Donovan Brown had the privilege of attending this hīkoi . . .

After two years of lockdowns and the threat of being washed away, Ngā Rākau Taketake (NRT) was finally able to host a Kaurilands Summit kanohi ki te kanohi this year. As event MC Stacey Morrison put it, Kaurilands Summit was “the hui that finally happened.”

Meet Alan King-Hunt (Ngāti Hauā), an early career researcher at Te Kawa a Māui – School of Māori Studies at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. He is currently working on two projects, one with BioHeritage and one with Predator Free 2050.

A recent paper published in Plants outlines the seed storage physiology of Lophomyrtus and Neomyrtus, two threatened Myrtaceae genera endemic to New Zealand. Spoiler alert: rōhutu (Lophomyrtus obcordata) is less sensitive to storage methods than ramarama (Lophomyrtus bullata) and Neomyrtus pedunculata remains a mystery.

Ed Challies (University of Canterbury) and Miria Goodwin (Ōpāwaho Heathcote River Network) are interested in the rich tapestries of environmental care in Aotearoa, and are exploring these fabrics in their Pathways to Ecosystem Regeneration project. Ed and Miria discussed the Ōpāwaho Heathcote River Network, and the challenges and rewards of collective action with BioHeritage writer Kerry Donovan Brown.

Ocean Mercier (Ngāti Porou) hosted four third-year students from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts through Novel Tools and Strategies – Invertabrates and Te Kawa a Māui – School of Māori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. In just seven weeks, the students (Rafaela Kanli, Lily MacDonald, Liam Hemmerling and Joey Horowitz) completed a project to understand social perspectives of gene-based pest control in Aotearoa.

BioHeritage is funding a new 18-month project, with the goal to deliver a white paper to government that provides an investment case for developing a national DNA reference library, founded upon Te Tiriti Governance. Manpreet Dhami, project co-lead and Senior Researcher in Biocontrol & Molecular Ecology at Manaaki Whenua, spoke with us about the inspiration for the project and what the team hopes to accomplish.