The river corridor is probably the largest area of managed retreat in an urban centre worldwide. How can our experience inform processes of managed retreat elsewhere? The question is central to this project, which has developed a model of ‘retreat’, ‘relocation’ and ‘re-imagining’. Re-imagining asks how can the land be re-used for projects that further lower environmental and social risks.
Debbie Tikao
Landscape architect, formerly general manager, Matapopore Trust
I was the general manager of the Matapopore Charitable Trust. Professionally, I have a background in landscape architecture and urban design, and am the environmental advisor for Ōnuku rūnanga, which is how I got to be invited to the position of general manager for Matapopore. The trust was established by Ngāi Tūāhuriri, who are mana whenua for Christchurch City. Their takiwā is much broader than that, but for the purpose of this, the job that I was doing was very centred around providing cultural design advice for the rebuild of Christchurch City post-earthquakes.
How did you get involved with the red zone, the Ōtākaro Corridor?
We were invited to provide the cultural lens over how the red zone spatial planning and the regeneration plan was developed. We were invited as in a treaty partnership sort of capacity, to co-design the outcomes to ensure that Ngāi Tūāhuriri values, their aspirations for the area, were manifest and recognised within the planning framework of the regeneration plan, as well as the spatial planning and potential opportunities for specific sites as well.
We were very much integrated into the whole project. We attended multiple workshops. We also developed, alongside Regenerate Christchurch, the criteria with which to consider and grade different options for that area. Right through to workshopping alongside Hugh [Nicholson] and others, and also James Lundy. And that was really the identification of different precincts or areas and the options for the treatment of those. For us, our main contribution was also integrating a mahinga kai framework into the regeneration plan. This really shifted our thinking from ecological restoration to thinking about our natural environment and the many resources within it as mahinga kai, so ensuring that that traditional system of thinking was embedded as a key way in which we viewed and understood the outcomes that we were trying to aspire to.
The framework we developed was only really one page. We may have provided explanation, it may have spread out over a few pages, but that was quite a fundamental aspect. It tied together, it showed the interconnection of a range of tikanga, Māori values, that underpinned our thinking, and also the interconnection between those and the outcomes that we were seeking, with the ultimate aspiration to support the enhancement of and improvement of the mahinga kai value of that area. It was based on thinking around abundance. We wanted a natural environment that was fully functioning and abundant in mahinga kai. And therefore enabling mana whenua to be able to maintain the traditional practice of mahinga kai.
Put simply, if we have an environment that's abundant in mahinga kai, then we know that all of our ecosystems, and everything within the environment is fully functioning and working. It's thinking more about the food and the resources and how they can sustain you and the measures you need to be putting into place to ensure that you get that outcome. It's not coming from a conservation perspective, it's coming from an integrated perspective between traditional ways of living and knowing our natural environment and how we think about land use. So it's more of an interconnected, more holistic way of thinking about things.
Did you feel that these values were reflected in the final regeneration plan?
To be fair, I'm not entirely sure where things are at now, but with the work that we were involved in, yes, absolutely. It was an incredible opportunity to create an ecological corridor, at an incredible scale. And for the activities around it to really reflect that, to support that, be it education or an attraction, somehow it all had to fold into the ultimate outcome. This was to have this extraordinary ecological corridor that from our perspective was really rich in natural resources and abundant, and enabled the cultural harvest, mahinga kai practices, to occur. The educational aspect of what we're trying to achieve was really important. With the landscape experiences of moving through that space, of being in it, we wanted that to be imparting that knowledge, and those traditional principles and the importance of why we need to be looking after the whenua and stepping up in that space.
We developed a series of projects. A cultural pathway was a key project. There were certain nodes [the ‘landings’ in the plan] that we developed that would provide amenity space for people to enjoy. These were opportunities for interpretation panels to integrate Māori design elements that spoke to those values as well. We saw this manifesting through the different nodes, and through the paths that connected them, and the extensive regeneration projects that would be included. Stormwater was a very high priority, creating opportunities for stormwater to be treated properly before it then was released back into the natural environment. So the experiences of this place, and the activities that occurred there would all be contributing to enhancing the water quality of the Ōtākaro and the biodiversity: a multi-layered approach to landscape.
Stormwater treatment was a key objective of Ngāi Tūāhuriri that came through from some of their kaitiaki who who were very much involved with the council on stormwater management plans for Ōtākaro and the whole of the Ōtautahi, prior to us working within the red zone. This enabled the kaitiaki that were working on that on behalf of Ngāi Tūāhuriri to then provide direct feedback to us that stormwater was a key issue and that this was a great opportunity. So that was then relayed to Regenerate Christchurch. We were able to be a voice for them to ensure that their aspirations were realised within the spatial planning component.
The Ōtākaro Regeneration Plan, when it was produced, definitely gave voice to those aspirations. But to be honest, I've been so busy doing other things I haven't followed it since as well as I probably should have. We did work on the Dallington landing design, that's when Matapopore was still active, and it was a great outcome to be able to input into that. I know that the some of the stormwater work has been underway which is fantastic. But at some point Matapopore’s work was done. Ngāi Tūāhuriri were establishing a new organisation called Whiti Ora and so they were really folding a lot of those sort of services into one organisation. The work that we had been established to do, which was very much related to the rebuild, that was largely complete. There were a few remaining projects, but Matapopore was completely wound up in 2023.
Can you describe how Matapopore worked?
The people in Matapopore were experts and professionals in built environment work. We came with that level of expertise. That's how we got the outcomes that we were able to get. We were aware of all of the possibilities. So that was the secret to our success. It was set up to provide cultural design advice but to do that we had a board. The board were representatives from Ngāi Tūāhuriri that were elected through the runanga and they came with a whole range of expertise. Dame Aroha Rereti Crofts was the chairperson. Lynne Te Aika came with that beautiful te reo knowledge and she had an incredible knowledge in puraku, traditional stories. She did a lot of the working with us and writing narratives. There was Joseph Hullen, who had incredible knowledge in mahinga kai. Then we had Huia Rereti, who is an architect.
Our office team consisted of myself - I was pretty nearly full-time. I had Mapihi Martin-Paul working with me, who was another landscape architect. She was seconded from Boffa Miskell two or three days a week. And then we also had some of our project leads. Kiri Waitiri had a background in both architecture and landscape architecture. Some of our project leads were steeped in mātauranga like Pōre Media, Pairatakuro. She was incredible with writing narratives and then we would support her with design advice. We had an arts advisor, Tui Falwasa, who had come from Mahaanui Kurataiao. She had a good environmental background but also incredible mātauranga Māori. She was a weaver, but also incredibly clever when it came to taking traditional concepts and working how they might manifest in a contemporary environmental situations. That was our main team. There were others who were involved in certain aspects We had a really strong team of people who had a wide breadth of expertise. We would work and brainstorm together on our bigger projects. So we had really strong, robust outcomes.
The other thing that we did is develop a process. At that time a lot of cultural advice came from just sitting down and talking. We felt that a lot of that information then got lost and it was up to the consultants who were engaged to interpret. We wanted to be more in control of how that was interpreted into design. So we developed a system of developing cultural design strategies or frameworks. That really enabled us to do more design thinking ourselves and then move into the co-design space rather than providing high-level advice for somebody else to take and run with. In the work that we have been involved the outcomes are really well thought through and that's because we got more involved in doing the actual design. We generated drawings, plans, and documents which articulated the concepts and how we saw them manifest.
The co-design process with the Regenerate team worked through workshops. The spatial plan is very high level. We didn't get into any detail there. When we were working with James Lunday on Cathedral Square, we were definitely more involved and a lot more hands-on with the designing of that. But with the Ōtākaro spatial plan, it was more about landing on those key moves. We were part of a team; we worked through lots of different ideas. It's like design is an iterative process. So
Mapihi Martin-Paul, Debbie Tikao and her daughter Matakaea Tikao, with Hugh Nicholson at Ngāi Tahu’s biennial hui-ā-iwi, Tuahiwi Marae, 2017
you are exploring different concepts, and Hugh Nicholson was leading that process. He created an environment where we would start with some really big picture thinking.
Everything was up for grabs, so you do this big design exploration thinking and then you start to move down into stages, through a process if you like, until you start to land on more tangible definites. They were very much grounded in that framework that we developed, the mahinga kai framework. That framework was really influential in the way the likes of Hugh understood or started to think. It really did shift our thinking and it was really exciting to see the other members of that team that weren't, you know, weren't us, to start to really understand. They sort of shifted into being the advocates for integrating these concepts and really underpinning our thinking with solid kaupapa. So that gave us a really solid foundation on which to move forward. We were just integrated into the design team, it was just that simple.
We didn't do the bulk of developing the actual plan, that's what Hugh's team did. But in terms of the outcomes and getting that vision right, we were very much part of the developing the vision. We were embedded into the entire process and it was a great process and I hope a great outcome. We do understand it's going to be a long process, but we were also very aware that the City to Sea Link, that used to be called the Cultural Trail, is a key opportunity to integrate some of that narrative, some of that storying, some of that educational aspect through design, through interpretation. I'm hoping that that still is on the cards.
In retrospect, what is your assessment of the regeneration planning process and the future of the Ōtākaro corridor?
The main thing is the environmental enhancement. What we'd like to see is an environment that's abundant and you've got whanau out there that are whitebaiting, that are harvesting from the forest, you've got weavers working with the resources of that area, people grabbing tuna. It's less about if it is restored and regenerated but if it's healthy and abundant, then that's the best possible outcome. That's way more important than having some beautiful Māori artwork. We want both, of course, but it's the actual natural environment that we're wanting to benefit the most.
It's like anything when you've invested so much aroha, you develop connections with people and through those connections and bonds there's some shared ideals and visions that come out of that. And it was because the process was so innovative and so inclusive that the regeneration plan was as good as it was. It really did capture that: it was very holistic, it was very forward focused, it was very innovative and so, and it provided so many opportunities for some really exciting outcomes. And good economic outcomes as well. We were seeing this as something that focused on mahinga kai and the restoration of the natural environment. But also we saw that that if it was done really well and in a way that embedded design excellence, then it would be an attraction that would bring people to come, to visit, to experience. We saw that that would be such an incredible asset to the city, to the country.
But it was difficult to understand how that would happen when so many of the clever thinkers that were part of the process just disappeared [with the completion of the plan] and the immense loss of their knowledge and passion of their vision. I'd say all the people involved in the development of the regeneration plan would fully have appreciated that process. They would have all had a lot of incredible expertise and they would have all worked on other projects where the process was nothing like this. I certainly have worked on a number of projects where there's been good process, but it may not have been valued the same or understood the same. Maybe we just don't articulate the importance of that process enough. I don't think we understand the learning and the sharing that occurs. It's really there's a transfer of knowledge that occurs and it's reciprocated.
So you all grow, everybody grows, but also you grow bonds and you grow trust. And when you've got trust, you can really make incredible things happen. But you've got to go through a process to get there. And that again comes back to why this was such a good process, because at the end of it, the bonds and the trust that were developed, enabled that innovation and you create a safe space for people to really think and explore ideas. They may be throwaway ideas in the end, but you create a space for that to occur and then you get to filter through and that bounces and then another idea might come in and it just evolves and that's design thinking really. It's just how you work with people, you create that energy and the magic just happens.
Interview with Eric Pawson, at Avebury House, Richmond, 10 December 2025