It was a large and very vocal crowd at Ōamaru’s Opera House last week for the last chapter in the Waitaki story tour.

The Waitaki District Council took its Waitaki story on the road earlier this month, from Palmerston to Ōmarama, to share a vision which was created through hours of conversations with community members.

These conversations were carried out mostly one-on-one with people from all sections of the community, to hear different perspectives, priorities, histories, and feelings about where they lived.

"Challenges and challengers. Resilience and connection. These are the threads of the Waitaki story, braided together like the rivers that run through our lands and our lives,” is the opening paragraph of the story which was presented to the public. 

The story has been created as part of the work being done to try and create a Waitaki brand and identity to help the district realise its potential.

In addition to sharing the Waitaki story, this latest group of sessions were, for the most part, an opportunity for the council’s economic development team to present its proposal for a new Waitaki logo and gather feedback and input on new town signage.

Council Economic and Community Development manager Mel Jones says the signage and branding had been recognised as something the council can act on without too much delay, but are only the first part of a long journey.

When asked to describe in simple terms what the aim of the Waitaki story is, Mel says it is hard to pin down.

“It's about helping all of our residents feel more connected to our place that we all call home . . . whether you were born here or not, we want you to feel that this is a really important place for you, and a place that you can feel comfortable and safe in and

feel connected with the broader community.

“That's why I say it's a long-term journey because, what we're looking at is what can council drive initially, and the one thing we've heard from our communities is the signage feels very out of date and doesn't reflect who we are today, and is, frankly, quite embarrassing, so please can we move on.

“I suppose what we're saying is ‘yes, as council, we can absolutely take control of that, and move it forward and do it as quickly as we can, you know, with the budgets that we have available’. 

“That's the first tangible line in the sand, if you like, that we can put, but I think the next stage of it all is very much going to be discussions with the community around, well, what do you want?”

The story, an artistic interwoven border, and a new logo which signifies ki uta ki tai (“everything from the mountains to the sea is interconnected”), has been created by two Wellington design agencies Story Inc and Ocean Design who, since April, have been “immersed” in the stories of Waitaki and information about the district. Distinguished Ngāi Tahu artist Ross Hemera has also been involved heavily in the process.

Feedback in the Ōamaru meeting last Wednesday was overwhelmingly disparaging of the new logo, one community member likening the wavy ‘W’ to a colon.

A computer-generated example of how the new logo and border art might be used in a sign. Photo: Ashley Smyth

Mel says the strong reaction in Ōamaru was in contrast to other places throughout the district, where feedback had been “surprisingly positive”, but she accepts designs and pictures can be polarising, and it is impossible to please everyone.

“Something that you love, I might hate and vice versa . . . we've seen that all the way through. It's all, you know, ‘I love the green’, ‘I hate the green’.

“So we have to accept that we've got multiple, multiple views, but if we want to move forward and if we want to move forward as a community in the district, at some point you have to make a call, and that's where we are now.”

The logo has evolved significantly since it was first shared publicly in September, following numerous discussions and feedback, and is now being recommended for adoption at Tuesday’s (November 26) council meeting.

A positive Mel took from the Ōamaru meeting was the “story” seems to resonate for people.

Work-ons were over the signage. The feedback from most of the different parts of the district, is the mock-up sign examples presented were not what communities were looking for.

Once the branding and signage has been decided on, the next step was communities deciding how they wanted their story to be told.

The Otematata session last Sunday was an example of a community which already knows how they want to tell the story of their town, she says.

“They've already got a designated area that they want to use for storytelling, and so they've already said, ‘we think this could be the first thing we could do to start to bring our story to life and, and profile who we are as a community’.

“That’s fabulous.”

The intention is to work with each community across the district, and find out how they want their story told, because every community can do it differently, she says.

The larger the community, the more diverse the voices, which makes the task more of a challenge.

“I think that's where we just will need to break it down into little bite-sized pieces . . . I think that's where we're really keen to talk to different groups in the community, go, ‘well, what would you like to do? And how might we enable that?’ 

“It isn't about council doing it. It can't be about that, and it wouldn't be right. We haven't got all the answers and we shouldn't have all the answers, because we want to co-create and co-design the answers.”

The project has been driven by the council economic development team, but included a team made up of a number of people from other organisations with an interest in the area, “to try and make sure that we were thinking broadly all the way through”, Mel says.

Te Rūnaka o Moeraki had been part of the consultation process, but a Waitaha contingent which travelled from Timaru to attend Wednesday night’s meeting, said their story had not been told and they had not been consulted for the document, which Mel acknowledges and says will be rectified.

“We'll be looking to work very closely with the rūnaka and Waitaha to ensure that we are respecting the mana of Waitaha and the rūnaka.”

While an effort has been made to consult all groups, Mel acknowledges there will always be more that needs telling. She describes the story as a “living document”.

“The themes are all the same. We've been progressive, we've done things that have impacted New Zealand as a country, but maybe we haven't blown our whistle enough or you know, talked about them enough. And so the more examples we have, the more we can start to bring those examples to life across the district.”

Waitaki District Council Economic and Community Development manager Mel Jones speaking in Ōamaru last Wednesday night. Photo: Ashley Smyth