In 2021, we Halswell School, Te Kura o te Tau Awa began our journey with the ‘Urban Eel Project - Te Tuna Tāone’ with facilitator, Jenny Bond, from the Christchurch Enviro Hub.

Te Tuna Tāone teaches young people about life in urban streams through the taonga (treasured) species- ‘The Longfin Eel/Tuna’. Christchurch is a special city – with its springs/ ngā puna, it has sustained the mighty and beloved longfin tuna right in the heart of our urban area. However, with stormwater pollution, climate change and the destruction and degradation of their habitat, we need to take action now to care for these unique ‘Tuna Tāone’, or ‘Urban Eels’.

The ‘Urban Eel Project - Te Tuna Tāone’ encourages our young people to become guardians (kaitiaki) of our environment and to take action to improve the life of this taonga species, the longfin tuna/ eel.

Our stream is Te Tau Awa (Nottingham Stream) which passes right by Halswell School. So we are working to improve the steam environments at two sites- Muir Park and Nottingham Stream Reserve. In 2020 we began with Years 0-2 and 7&8. This year we are bringing in our young Enviroleaders to this group so we can continue our kaitiaki role as our Tuakana leave kura. 

Stream Day Video

Volunteers Needed Please

To educate our community about our Urban Tuna our young people have created an educational postcard to be dropped into local residents mailboxes in Halswell (Pamphlet). We would greatly appreciate your support in distributing these flyers. Below is a list of the streets that need volunteers to deliver to. All the stormwater from the streets that are in this catchment /area flows untreated into the Nottingham Stream. Please fill out this Google Form if you would like to volunteer to help deliver the pamphlets.