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Keep Tairāwhiti Beautiful: Tairāwhiti Environment Centre working with the community to grow pride one street at a time

Creating cleaner, greener urban spaces doesn't always begin with large-scale projects. Sometimes it starts with something as familiar as your local dairy. The Tairāwhiti Environment Centre's (TEC) Keep Tairāwhiti Beautiful initiative is helping refresh neighbourhood streetscapes through practical, community-led action that makes it easier for people to care for the places we all share. 


Where better to begin than the local dairy? Found in almost every neighbourhood, dairies are some of the most used community spaces making them the natural place to begin. The Keep Tairāwhiti Beautiful project began when TEC invited dairy owners with planter boxes outside their stores to take part in the kaupapa. Existing planter boxes, originally installed to support dairy owners following a rise in ram raids, had gradually become makeshift seats, bins, and ashtrays. Rather than starting from scratch, TEC worked alongside dairy owners to refresh them with new soil, seasonal flowers and practical guidance, creating the foundation for Keep Tairāwhiti Beautiful. 


Nearby residents are encouraged to awhi the planters, creating a shared sense of care, while a new partnership with Strive Rehab will see next season's flowers propagated and grown by Strive clients before being planted across Tairāwhiti.


Steph, Hub Coordinator at Tairāwhiti Environment Centre, said this project is all about making awhi for our shared spaces more visible.


"After a tough few years, we wanted to help shift the focus from what's wrong with our streets to what we can do together to care for them. Small actions, repeated often, can completely change how a place feels." 


As this project got underway, it became clear to Steph that further opportunities could be added to this project.


"The gardens were looking great, but litter was still finding its way into these spaces, even where bins were nearby. We realised there was another simple way we could support people who wanted to help care for their neighbourhoods."


This led to the realisation of the next stage of the project. Each participating dairy received a litter picking kit including a picking tool, buckets and hi-vis vests. As interest in the project grew, participation expanded from the original 11 dairies to many more across Tairāwhiti, with kura and preschools also joining the kaupapa. For dairies without the space for planter boxes, the kits provide another way to contribute to cleaner, more welcoming streets. In total, the project has enabled 100 litter-picking kits to be distributed throughout the community. To encourage even more people to get involved, 15 kits are also available for members of the public to borrow from the Tairāwhiti Environment Centre.


But the project didn’t stop there. 


Steph recognised another opportunity to connect people with the journey litter takes once it leaves our streets.


"We wanted to help make that connection between our streets, our awa and our moana. Sometimes seeing where stormwater goes is all it takes to understand why every piece of litter matters."


And so began the third stage of the Keep Tairāwhiti Beautiful project. Working alongside Gisborne District Council, Mountains to Sea, and Enviroschools, TEC is installing 100 blue fish beside stormwater drains across town. These bright blue fish create a simple visible reminder that anything that goes down a stormwater drain flows directly in our awa or moana. The initiative extends across neighbourhoods, parks, industrial areas, busy public spaces and up to 30 schools and kura. Moreover, many locations also feature signs carrying the message "You love the awa? You love the moana? Anything dropped here, washes straight there! See it. Pick it up!"


There’s even an online map showing locations of the fish installed so far.


Getting involved in this kaupapa is easy.


Get picking. Borrow a litter kit from the Tairāwhiti Environment Centre and help give your local street a little extra care. Talk to your local dairy owner, or Steph at TEC, if you're keen to help awhi the flowers in the planter boxes 


Get educated. Keep an eye out for the blue fish around town. Tell your friends and whānau why they are there and keep learning about the connection between our streets and waterways.


Get tagging. Share your efforts by using #keeptairawhitibeautiful to help inspire others! 


Tairāwhiti Environment Centre is open Tuesday – Friday, 9 am – 3 pm (5pm on Thursdays). Stop in to have a yarn and a cuppa; they are always accepting of new volunteers and good ideas.


Visit: 386 Palmerston Road

Phone: 06 867 4708


One of the #keeptairawhitibeautiful fish, located outside Cotton On, on Gladstone Road.


Steph (far right) and the team at Strive who are already underway planning for the next growing season.

 
 
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