Heartland - Whanganui River

The time will be to celebrate when the crown succeeds and comes back to us and says 'You are the tangata whenua. You are the rightful owners of the land, from the mountain to the sea.'

– Tieke protestor Piripi Haami

If I can't tell the difference between the instructions for me and the dogs, I'll go home.

– Whanganui farmer Trissa McIntyre on working alongside her husband on the family farm

The Māori saw the Whanganui as a sacred treasure: a hugely wealthy source of food from its waters and its forests, a jealously guarded secret. For those early Pākehā New Zealanders, the Whanganui was the perfect image of the exotic South Seas paradise to which they wished they had come.

– Presenter Gary McCormick introduces the region's history

He just had a way with people, from the eldest to the youngest. They all frolicked around him.

– Fanny Bell on why people loved James K Baxter when he lived in Jerusalem

If the river does not return back to us, we're nothing. We're not a tribe.

– Niko Tangaroa

The biggest gift that the women have within our region is that we get the first and the last call. The men cannot do without the women. And they can't go onto a marae unless the woman karangas them on...

– Wai Wiari Southern on local marae protocol