October: The Foreshore and Seabed Hikoi
Ko Taranaki te maunga
Ko Te Atiawa, Ngati Tama, Ngati Mutunga, Ngati Maru nga iwi
Ko Harvey Te Hawe Waewae Makimi Whatatiri Whakaruru (Harvey Te Hawe Ruru) te ingoa tuturu.
Ko te Atirikona raua ko Vicar General Te Pihopatanga ki Te Waipounamu.
I am named after Te Hawe, one of the Marlborough Sounds chiefs before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. Te Hawe and the other chiefs and iwi owned all the land we lived on and used for our pa, burial grounds and cultivations. Our harvesting of the seas, rivers and lakes depended on sustainability, keeping them for use by the future generations. We maintained the principle of guardianship (kaitiakitanga) over our resources. They could be shared equally with others so long as they understood these resources needed seasons to replenish and that tapu (sacredness) was not breached.
Under Treaty of Waitangi Article 2 we were promised we would retain chieftainship over these lands for as long as it was our wish. Today I am the Chairperson of Te Atiawa Manawhenua ki Te Tau Ihu Trust, one of the eight claimants that filed an application to the Maori Land Court for a hearing on who owns the Foreshore and Seabed.
In the early 1990s the aquaculture marine industry boomed in the Marlborough Sounds and water space, particularly for mussel farming, became increasingly short in supply. Through the administration of the Resource Management Act, iwi customary rights of cultivation had been ignored. This was predominantly carried out by white-collared decision makers of the Marlborough District Council and its committees. No Maori are part of this decision making.
All the applications iwi sought for marine farming through Resource Management Act applications had a 100 percent failure record. Many iwi could not ask for repeal of these decision through the Environment Court, owing to the huge financial outlay required.
The final straw came when the Crown imposed a moratorium on marine farming applications in the Marlborough Sounds as a forerunner to the imposition of a coastal tendering regime for marine farming.
It is ironic that the Crown has now positioned itself as the guardian of rights over public access within the coastal marine areas, given that their policies of privatisation led directly to the iwi response of filing the Marlborough Sounds application to the Maori Land Court.
Seven years later the Court of Appeal held that the Maori Land Court had jurisdiction to investigate whether the foreshore and seabed of the Marlborough Sounds was Maori customary land. The Court of Appeal did not say the land belonged to Maori, and knew that the process would be long and complex.
The knee-jerk response and blatant racist ruminations by certain members of the Marlborough District Council and other political forces (who should have known better) overshadowed the justice iwi were seeking in being allowed our customary right to now have a share in cultivating our resources.
The Venerable Te Hawe Whakaruru, QSM
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