Urban stream environments have been significantly altered through processes of colonisation and urbanisation. In Te Whanganui‐a‐Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, there is growing interest in peeling back layers of the city to reconnect with waterways. More‐than‐human geographies can play a critical role in contributing to these efforts, guiding understandings of what it means to restore and live alongside urban streams. In our case study of the Waimapihi Stream, we explore one community's ideas and practices of restoration and how they envision a thriving place through the notion of stream daylighting. The Waimapihi shows us that restoration activities are both product and process of co‐creating an ontologically plural space for the renegotiation of what stream restoration means.

This article examines the challenges posed by governance and policy to stream daylighting efforts in the urban context of Aotearoa New Zealand. Building on the work of McLean (2020), it examines the prospect of daylighting the Waimapihi stream in Te Whanganuia- Tara–Wellington. It then provides recommendations for future directions in freshwater management in light of ongoing reforms in the policy sphere, calling for a more inclusive scope of protection within Aotearoa New Zealand’s foremost resource management legislation.

<p>Urban stream environments have been significantly altered through processes of colonisation and urbanisation in pursuit of land for development and control over natural resources. The science and practice of river restoration has struggled to deconstruct the human-nature duality embedded in Western ontologies and draw in environmental social sciences and humanities to advance understandings of ‘restoration’ and its objectives. In Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, there is growing interest in how to peel back layers of the city to restore what was there before or conceive what kind of nature might grow. More- than-human geographies can play a critical role in contributing to these efforts, guiding understandings of what it means to restore streams and live alongside them in urban centres. This research draws out the interdisciplinary potential of more-than-human theory to explore how community-based restorationists articulate and practice ethics for and with Waimapihi Stream in Te Whanganui-a- Tara Wellington. A more-than-human approach allows for a focus on the relational framings, ethics, and practices through which relational agency is achieved, and the ways this agency shapes practices and processes in the restoration of Waimapihi stream.</p>