Waiouru is a unique town that is home to one of the New Zealand Army training facilities. It is a close-knit community and one in which an interesting partnership has been created. Waiouru School, (growing future leaders and learners with mana, instilled with a lifelong passion for learning, a sense of community, and who persevere in the face of adversity) and the National Army Museum Te Mata Toa, (who aim to engage, inspire, and educate through telling the stories of real-life soldiers, preserving and protecting New Zealand’s military heritage, and allowing families to reconnect with their ancestors military history) are committed to creating sustainable change, working together to make their community a better one for the future.
Celebrating aspects of the current situation.
Thinking about alternatives.
In March 2024, students from Waiouru School conducted an environmental audit of the Museum, looking at the museum’s overall sustainability and day-to-day practices. The process reviewed how the Museum currently manages waste, what the Museum does to reduce energy consumption, the staff’s attitudes to sustainability, and the Museum’s environmental written policies and procedures. The students formulated questions to ask the museum staff during the audit, with the intention of learning from each other and joining forces to implement positive change.
Staff discuss their current practices and explore alternatives.
Staffroom recycling being checked.
The senior students presented their feedback at a planting event in June and celebrated the Museum’s commitment to sustainability with the planting of two new native shrubs in the Museum’s gardens.
Kate settles soil around the harakeke plant.
Elijah adds to the planting in front of the museum.
Museum Director, Cherie Meecham said, “The school’s feedback has been a timely reminder for the staff to ensure we are regularly reviewing our practices and looking for ways we can reduce waste and energy consumption. Following the school’s feedback our staff devoted a team session to exactly this and are looking to implement some improvements to our current recycling and office waste management practices.”
Although the museum is a sustainable tourism business, a GOLD Qualmark tourism operator and Tiaki Promise supporter, they recognise that there is more that can be done. They hope a collaboration with Waiouru School will bring further focus on sustainable operations and action and support the school in their ongoing Enviroschools journey towards sustainability.
The Museum is also hoping to look at a longer-term project of enhancing the outdoor landscape of the Museum grounds. This would firstly involve developing a landscape plan by gathering input from the Museum’s stakeholders, incorporating key stories and identifying plants suitable to the area. The Museum hopes the school students can have an ongoing part of this.
Nicola Bennett, Marketing and Visitor Experience Manager says that they see this sort of engagement as an ongoing partnership with our wider community of schools in the central plateau, a number of which are Enviroschools.
Learning together through conducting the audit.
Gathering for the planting ceremony.
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