New grapes prompt plans for Ihumātao-style occupation in Marlborough

Thursday, 30 January 2020

Rangitāne member Keelan Walker believes new grapes have been planted over an archaeological site at Kowhai Pā, in Marlborough.

Rangitāne members in Marlborough are threatening an Ihumātao-style occupation near 'the birthplace of Aotearoa' to protest what they believe are new grapevines planted over an archaeological site.

Rangitāne o Wairau member Keelan Walker claims the new grapes are in a 'red zone', set out by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, and he believes owner Montford Corporation does not have permission to disturb the site, known as Kowhai Pā.

Heritage NZ confirmed it was investigating the allegation, but would not say if permission had been sought to carry out work at the site.

Rangitāne members, from left, Mahina Smith, Lewis Smith, Keelan Walker, Lee Mason and Pirihera Smith are calling for the protection of Kowhai Pā in Marlborough.

Kowhai Pā is a Māori settlement where archaeologists have found evidence of urupā (burials), stone ovens, and tools dating back to 1840. The village site is near Wairau Bar, the earliest known Māori settlement circa 1250AD, known as 'New Zealand's most significant archaeological landscape'.

**READ MORE:

Before: The site of Kowhai Pā, in the foreground, was unplanted in 2016. The area has since been planted in grapevines.

* Heritage New Zealand reveals legal costs for case against Marlborough landowners

* Marlborough iwi Rangitane O Wairau 'outraged' by settlement with Heritage New Zealand

After: Kowhai Pā, off Wairau Bar Rd in Marlborough, has been planted over in grapes.

* Ihumātao: Māori King confident of a positive resolution before Waitangi**

Much of Kowhai Pā is owned by grapegrowers Montford Corporation, and any work in the historically significant 'red zone' requires Heritage NZ permission.

A Heritage NZ report from 2016 shows blue, pink and red zones on Montford Corporation's property on Wairau Bar Rd, near Blenheim.

Montford Corporation director Haysley MacDonald declined to comment.

MacDonald was also an elected trustee at Te Rūnanga a Rangitāne o Wairau, and director of te Pā Wines, which described its land at Wairau Bar as 'the backbone of our family for 800 years', referring to the archaeological finds in the area.

New grapes have been planted at Wairau Bar.

Rangitāne general manager Nick Chin said iwi rūnanga (leaders) were aware of the issue, and monitoring it closely. 'The position at the moment is that this is between Heritage NZ Pouhere Taonga and te Pā Wines.'

MacDonald was charged in 2016 under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, which makes it illegal to destroy or modify an archaeological site without permission, after he and his father cleared scrub and used machinery on the other side of the Wairau Bar property in 2015.

Rangitāne member Keelan Walker at Kowhai Pā, where vines have been planted over what he believes is a 'red zone'.

Those charges were dropped in exchange for a $15,000 donation to Heritage NZ. He also had to commission an archaeological survey of the property to guide their future use of the land.

Strata Heritage archaeologist Dr Jeremy Habberfield-Short recorded 13 historically-significant sites at Kowhai Pā, with evidence of urupā, argillite toki (axe), stone ovens and midden scatter, moa bone and moa egg shell, and seashells.

The report by Habberfield-Short, published online by Heritage NZ, set out green, pink and red zones to indicate different levels of protection needed across the property.

'Red zone: All works including farm work, maintenance works, development works or vineyard conversion has the potential to modify or destroy pre-1900 surface and subsurface archaeological deposits on the elevated stony relict beach ridges. Montford Corporation must apply for a 544(a) general authority from Heritage New Zealand for all works,' the report said.

Walker said he believed the new grapes were clearly inside the red zone.

'The owners will say it's their land, but we know the Act was put in place to protect places like this,' Walker said.

'There's a significance to the Māori community but it's also important to preserve the integrity and tapu-ness (sacredness) of this site.'

Walker said he was planning to file a contemporary grievance against the Crown through the Waitangi Tribunal, the same authority that previously heard the Ihumātao case.

'Ihumātao wasn't even an archaeological site … And this isn't even a Pākehā corporation, this is our own people doing the damage,' Walker said.

Walker and several supporters planned to occupy the iwi reservation bordering the Montford property in a few weeks, he said.

'We will do a bit of a hāngī, invite people out here and educate people, not just on the significance of this place but also what's taking place right now. It's easy to form an ill-informed opinion if you don't know what the facts are.

'We've tried the letter-writing route, it doesn't work. My whole work is based around promoting our culture and our history, I would be a hypocrite if I didn't stand up and say something about this.'

Graffiti calling for Kowhai Pā to be saved was sprayed on a Rangitāne billboard at the Blenheim train station on Tuesday. The paint was removed a few hours later.

Ahu Whenua (Māori land trust) trustee Erina MacDonald said she supported Walker's battle to save Kowhai Pā.

'He [Haysley MacDonald] has done it before, and it's time he was stopped … Enough is enough.'