“Maa pango, maa whero, ka oti te mahi” – “Working together to achieve”
The Fairfield Project is an urban biodiversity and gully restoration project centered in the diverse community of Fairfield in Hamilton. Our ongoing kaupapa is to provide educational opportunities for all ages alongside the restoration of the culturally and ecologically significant Kukutaaruhe Gully. Since 2016, we have planted over 31,000 trees, involved over 2000 people, created a community garden with over 100 community gardeners, worked with schools and run workshops for a variety of groups in the community.
The Kukutaaruhe Gully - the site of The Fairfield Project - lies in the heart of Hamilton/Kirikiriroa – 12 hectares of green space currently leased from the Ministry of Education.
At the head of the gully is the Aratiatia Community Marae and its magnificent wharenui, Te Ihorangi. This is the formal gateway to The Fairfield Project and the Kukutaaruhe Gully.
Here is the link to the marae website https://www.aratiatiamarae.com
Marama Davidson’s visit
On June 8th 2025, we had the pleasure of a visit from Green Party Co-Leader Marama Davidson, MPs Ricardo Menendez March and Lawrence Xu-Nan and their support team, along with HCC Councillor, Anna Casey-Cox.
Starting the morning with a mihi whakatau at Aratiatia Community Marae, we then reconvened at The Watershed to show Marama and the team some of the restoration mahi we've been doing, and to share some of our koorero.
It was wonderful to have our efforts appreciated and wholeheartedly supported. We also heard some of their whakaaro on how we can develop the project and use the uniqueness of some aspects of our kaupapa to establish a model nationally.
E te maareikura, teenaa koe.
10th birthday celebration
On the 25th March 2024 the Kukutaaruhe Education Trust, the working group and some of our key sponsors and volunteers gathered to celebrate ten years of the Fairfield Project. It was the perfect opportunity to celebrate all that we’ve achieved in that time, and to acknowledge the considerable efforts of the team. A video highlighting the activities of the previous 12 months can be viewed here
We also celebrated the vision of our founding Chair, Vic Arcus, who planted the seed for the project back in 2014. Vic’s leadership and passion helped establish and grow the project into the taonga we have today.
The evening was held at The Watershed, in full view of Kukutaaruhe Gully where we could clearly see the fruits of our labours. We’re excited for the next ten years!
