The Waituna wetlands fire in drought-stricken Southland has been threatening culturally important sites on the coastline but the fire is now out.
The blaze has burned through more than 1000 hectares of mānuka scrub and peat soils at Awarua, outside Invercargill, for five days.
Te Rūnaka o Awarua kaiwhakahaere Dean Whaanga says the wetland has been used for many generations to gather food and harvest plants and includes wāhi tapu and urupā.
“They’ve really got on top of the fires. There are still some concerns around the edges because we have a really big wind. It’s really windy down here today but thankfully we had a bit of rain overnight.
He said the fire seemed to be under control but Fire & Emergency will be looking after it for the next week. The fire is out. “But the peat is burning underground and they are concerned the fire could pop up again. “
Whaanga said it was a significant piece of repo repo (wetland )that was originally huge and at one time stretched halfway along the southern coastline.
“It has shrunk and it’s the remnants of some special areas where we used to collect kai, birds, ducks, that sort of thing. Presently it’s in the DoC estate and we have a wonderful relationship with DoC. It is statutorily acknowledged in terms of a relationship with the Crown as a mahinga kai.”