Dome Valley dump: rāhui to stop development may be 'irrelevant'

Friday, 14 June 2019

Local opposition is growing to Waste Management's proposed landfill in the Dome Valley, north Auckland. (Video first published in July 2020)

A group intent on imposing a rāhui over the site of a proposed dump face opposition from the area's iwi, Ngati Manuhiri.

More than 200 members of the Dome Valley community voted unanimously in favour of the rāhui at a hui in Wellsford in last Sunday. They want to stop Auckland Council granting a resource consent to its owner, Waste Management, which would allow it to build a massive landfill 70km north of Auckland CBD.

But the Ngati Manuhiri Settlement Trust's chairman Mook Hohneck said any rāhui placed over the land without Ngati Manuhiri co-operation would be 'irrelevant' under Māori customary law.

Ngati Manuhirhi's chairman Mook Hohneck says the iwi remains nuetral on the proposed landfill at this early stage in its development.

'We won't accept it any shape or form: from a cultural perspective, we are the only ones with the mana to impose a rāhui,' he said.

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Mikaera Miru claims the Fight the Tip Committee ticked all boxes necessary to impose a rāhui over Ngati Manuhiri land.

Chinese-owned Waste Management bought the block – currently commercial forest and farmland – in 2018. It has promised the Auckland Regional Landfill, should it go ahead, would be as environmentally friendly as possible and also necessary to meet future Auckland's waste disposal needs.

Those opposed to the development claim it would put the area's waterways at risk. They are worried leachate from the landfill could contaminate the Hoteo River, which empties into the Kaipara Harbour.

The extra traffic a landfill operation would bring to their already notoriously deadly stretch of SH1 was also a concern.

Under the Resource Management Act, Auckland Council is required to take Waste Management's proposed site's ties with manawhenua into account when assessing its application for a resource consent. A rāhui is a requested ban on activity, for a stated purpose, wielding cultural if not explicitly legal heft

Mikaera Miru, Māori liaison for the Fight the Tip Committee, said he hoped the rāhui would demonstrate local Māori's opposition to a landfill in Dome Valley.

The rāhui ceremony is planned for dawn on Saturday, near the proposed dump's site.

It would be 'a real legitimate rāhui' with or without Hohneck's blessing, Miru said. It would require a second hui to order its removal.

'We don't want to trample on the mana of Ngati Manuhiri, but we do want to exercise our kaitiaki. That is, to protect the jewel of the Kaipara from being poisoned by a landfill.'

Miru insisted his group followed the necessary protocol to impose a rāhui. They invited all affected parties including the Ngati Manuhiri iwi to a meeting to discuss it, made a collective decision, and members could demonstrate through family lineage a genetic connection to Ngati Manuhiri, he said.

'So, we say we are Ngati Manuhiri and therefore have every right to place a rāhui on Ngati Manuhiri land.'

Hohneck, who lives in Auckland, said he had no problem with anyone opposing the landfill and that 'if this group want to do a karakia on the roadside on Saturday, that's fine'.

But he would not accept Miru and Fight the Tip Committee could impose an official rāhui..

He said the iwi was engaging with Waste Management and would remain neutral on the proposed landfill until more facts and figures emerged.