Mt Albert: Protest group and iwi set to stage three-day hui over tree felling plan

Monday, 6 January 2020

A hui will be held this weekend as part of an ongoing protest against the Tūpuna Maunga Authority's plans to cut down 345 trees on Mt Albert.

A three-day hui will be held this week as part of an ongoing occupation of a volcanic cone.

Protest group Honour the Maunga and iwi Ngati Awa will hold the hui on Auckland's Mt Albert, which has been occupied since November over plans to cut down 345 non-native trees on the mountain.

Some of the signs protesters put up at the entrance to the maunga in 2019.

The Tūpuna Maunga Authority (TMA), which co-governs Ōwairaka/Mt Albert with Auckland Council, plans to replace them with about 13,000 native trees and plants.

Honour the Maunga said it supported the planting of natives, but was concerned with the mass felling of trees and potential harm to wildlife.

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

* Mt Albert tree removal: Date for hui announced**

The hui, which will start on Friday and end on Sunday, will be held in partnership with Bay of Plenty iwi Ngati Awa.

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.)

The iwi has ties to the Auckland mountain through ancient ancestor Wairaka, whose name forms the basis of the maunga's Māori name, Ōwairaka.

Ngāti Awa ki Te Awa chairman Pouroto Ngaropo said like Honour the Maunga, the iwi was opposed to the TMA's plans.

'From a Te Ao Māori perspective … all trees give life and come from Papatūānuku, Mother Earth,' he said.

'Removing hundreds of trees all at once from Ōwairaka, and thousands more from other Auckland maunga, will harm the environment and – ultimately – the people.'

Honour the Maunga spokeswoman Anna Radford said hui attendees would be able to hear about the history of the mountain and ask questions about Ngati Awa and the group's concerns with the TMA's plans.

An earlier hui, held by TMA in November, became heated as tensions between those supporting the protest group and the authority surfaced.

The region's maunga are owned by the city's iwi and hapu as a result of a 2014 Treaty of Waitangi settlement.

'The protest group was keen to get the council involved, but the council isn't the owner,' Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said.

'I have tried to engage with the chairman of the TMA, Paul Majurey, to get him to speak to the Honour the Maunga group to find a solution.'

Majurey was unavailable for comment.