Mt Albert tree removal: Rift opens among protesters

Friday, 29 November 2019

The Tūpuna Maunga Authority held a peaceful hui at Mt Albert / Ōwairaka to hear the woes of the protestors who are concerned about trees being cut down on the mountain. (Video first published in November 2019.)

Tree protesters on an Auckland maunga have distanced themselves from 'culturally inappropriate' comments made by some of their supporters.

For three weeks, the group Honour the Maunga has occupied the entrance to Ōwairaka/Mt Albert, protesting a plan to fell 345 exotic trees and replace them with 10,000 natives.

On Thursday a hui was held by the Tūpuna Maunga Authority (TMA), which co-governs the site with Auckland Council. Honour the Maunga decided to boycott the hui.

Lisa Prager told the hui it would be an act of 'enormous arrogance' to remove the exotic trees.

But protesters against the removal of the trees still turned up to voice their opinions. One protester, Lisa Prager, decried what she called an 'utu on the exotics'.

**READ MORE:

Tau Henare labelled the tree protesters as 'woke, entitled Pākehā'.

* Mt Albert tree removal: Protesters labelled 'woke, entitled Pākehā' at hui

* Saving Ōwairaka/Mt Albert's trees: becoming an activist at almost 100 years old

* Protesters vow to occupy Auckland's Ōwairaka/Mt Albert 24/7 to block removal of trees**

One speaker said he found Prager's claim she was mana whenua 'insulting'.

Comments from Prager and other protesters were also described as 'appalling' and 'abhorrent'. Tau Henare from the Independent Māori Statutory Board slammed the protesters as 'woke, entitled, Pākehā people'.

On Friday, Honour the Maunga spokesperson Anna Radford said Prager and other speakers at the hui didn't represent the group.

'The tree protection group occupying Ōwairaka/Mt Albert has strongly spoken out against culturally inappropriate comments made at yesterday's Tūpuna Maunga Authority hui,' Radford said.

The group decided to stay away from the hui, but supporters of the group attended and voiced 'personal opinions completely at odds' with their views.

'Firstly, we do not - and have never - regarded ourselves as mana whenua.

'Furthermore, I and other members of Honour the Maunga were shocked to learn that a hui attendee had cursed members of the Authority and their descendants. We could never condone such unacceptable and deeply offensive behaviour.'

Radford said as a grassroots community organisation, the group was 'limited in the extent that it could control other interests from expressing their views'.