OUR STORY

The Fairfield Project was set up by the Kukutaaruhe Education Trust. The Project was established to support and encourage environmental education for all ages, building community resilience, ecological restoration and kaitiakitanga. This is an intergenerational project aiming to connect the community with their environment. 

Our history

The Kukutaaruhe Education Trust was formally established in 2016 after two years of work by a local committee. The committee was convened in response to a proposal put to the community by the Ministry of Education to sell the land bounded by the Kukutaaruhe Gully and Fairfield College. The committee put forward an alternative proposal to establish an environmental education centre on the land as a means of restoring the whenua, providing education for all ages and building community resilience, and called this initiative The Fairfield Project. 

Our people

The Kukutaaruhe Education Trust

Lillian Pompey (chair), Roger Cox (deputy chair), Marina Hape, Eddie Neha, Kieran Barry, Richard Crawford and Diedrich Haarde (treasurer).

Project Personnel

The Fairfield Project Team works collaboratively. The team includes two paid part-time staff Lynnette Rogers (educator) and Bruce McKay (ecologist) the trustees, volunteers, and many supporters all of whom offer a range of relevant skills and experience. Roles are filled as needs arise, and allocation of tasks is based on matching skills with the mahi. 

 

Our vision

 

Our vision is to be a leading centre of education for our local and wider community; embodying, inspiring, and enabling sustainable practice and living. We are wholly committed to restoring the Kukutaaruhe gully so that future generations can gaze upon it and experience the same landscape seen, utilised and celebrated by their tuupuna. 

We are part of a diverse cultural community and are committed to the following underpinning values:

  • Kaitiakitanga

  • Manaakitanga

  • Maatauranga Maaori

  • Education for all

  • Community sustainability

  • Diversity, integrity and respect

  • Research based practices

We strive to embody, inspire, and enable sustainable practice and living, through our four pou: Conservation; Education; Community; Culture.