The Star: January 26, 2017
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<strong>26</strong><br />
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Thursday <strong>January</strong> <strong>26</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
News<br />
Agriculture provides opportunity<br />
•From page 25<br />
“Working alongside each<br />
other provides time and opportunity<br />
to talk about what is going<br />
on in people’s lives. Projects<br />
like this work at many levels,”<br />
Mr Gent said.<br />
Koukourarata Marae representative<br />
Manaia Cunningham<br />
said he was very proud of the<br />
way the project was progressing<br />
and the difference it was making<br />
in the lives of the people working<br />
on it.<br />
“As a marae we are thrilled to<br />
support our community service<br />
whanau and we are here to<br />
support each other,” Mr Cunningham<br />
said.<br />
“This education programme<br />
has a Maori education framework<br />
that ensures everyone’s<br />
whakapapa is respected.”<br />
For some of those in the<br />
project, they will find the confidence<br />
and passion to continue<br />
their studies in a related field, for<br />
example, horticulture or forestry<br />
at Lincoln University.<br />
Bill Martin, manager of the<br />
biological husbandry unit, is the<br />
university’s delivery partner in<br />
the partnership.<br />
“This programme delivers<br />
skills that growers want,” Mr<br />
Martin said.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> people graduating from<br />
STUCK IN: People on community sentences with Corrections<br />
have been learning new agricultural skills, such as proficiency<br />
with a chainsaw.<br />
this programme have certificates<br />
of proficiency in useful skills.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> programme offers a way<br />
to engage in the community and<br />
partner in the Koukourarata<br />
gardens. While the initial programme<br />
was about rebuilding<br />
and shaping lives, the partnership<br />
has taken a new turn with<br />
the BHU engaging in a two-year<br />
research project to develop<br />
commercial seed lines of organic<br />
taewa, or Maori potatoes, and<br />
ensure their availability into the<br />
future.<br />
“Through this project, we will<br />
enable Koukourarata to develop<br />
commercial scale production of<br />
organic taewa,” Mr Martin said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> tikanga element of the<br />
programme also sat well with<br />
the university’s whenua strategy<br />
and recognition of the importance<br />
of engaging with Maori<br />
and Pasifika and the land.<br />
“Between the three partners<br />
we bring commitment, tikanga,<br />
the labour, the science and the<br />
will to make a difference to the<br />
future of this food source which<br />
is culturally significant to New<br />
Zealand, and especially to iwi,”<br />
Mr Martin said.<br />
“We are helping people reconnect<br />
with the earth, traditional<br />
planting and horticultural methods.<br />
It’s not just seeds we are<br />
growing. It’s ideas and futures.”<br />
As for Brent, he felt very<br />
positive about his future. He<br />
had returned to Lincoln to study<br />
landscape architecture and had<br />
completed and passed his first<br />
two papers.<br />
“I stuffed up so much for so<br />
long. I needed this, but I didn’t<br />
know I needed it. It seems<br />
strange to say, but it has been a<br />
really important experience for<br />
me,” he said.<br />
“My sentence gave me<br />
purpose. I came home feeling<br />
engaged and positive again.<br />
Since I have been on sentence,<br />
my whole life has turned around<br />
and Corrections has been a big<br />
part of this.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong><br />
Few clues in<br />
home invasion<br />
investigation<br />
• By Andrew King<br />
LEADS IN a Harewood home<br />
invasion are thin, with police<br />
focusing on forensic evidence.<br />
On December 19, three elderly<br />
people were held against their will<br />
at the Patricia Pl property, near<br />
Nunweek Park, for more than<br />
three hours.<br />
Detective Senior Sergeant<br />
Leairne Dow said police could not<br />
discuss what forensic evidence<br />
they are looking at or whether it<br />
came from the house or the car<br />
that was stolen after the invasion.<br />
About 7am, a man entered the<br />
house by posing as a delivery man.<br />
He tied up the victims, in their<br />
60s, before leaving in their silver<br />
Toyota Vitz, police said.<br />
That car has since been recovered.<br />
Detective Senior Sergeant Dow<br />
said the motive appears to be<br />
financial gain.<br />
“No gang or drug connections<br />
have been identified, but we are<br />
keeping an open mind,” she said.<br />
She said the victims are still in<br />
the country and are co-operating<br />
with police inquiries.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y say the offender, described<br />
as 30-40 years old, is 1.8m tall and<br />
of solid build.<br />
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