Whanganui River Week 2011 celebrated Te Awa o Whanganui and connecting the community to its beautiful river with eight days of events, films, stories, future aspirations kōrero, waka ama racing, traditional Māori fishing and the Great Whanganui Awa Pumice Race.

One of the key themes of the November event was ‘caring for our river’. On a damp Sunday morning, a literal raft of people of all ages came to support the Great Awa Clean up, organised by the Department of Conservation.

Te Whānau o Pūtiki showed their commitment to their awa by clearing the banks of the awa of all the rubbish that had accumulated from the Pūtiki boat ramp to the Awarua stream past the Cobham bridge.