Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei challenges other iwi to stop coveting their land in central Auckland

Friday, 5 February 2021

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei deputy chair Ngarimu Blair tells Stuff how Māori adapted to colonisation and became successful traders with early European settlers.

OPINION: Following a dawn karakia on February 9, hundreds of my people will hīkoi from our marae, which sits at the very centre of Tāmaki Makaurau above Okahu Bay on the shores of the Waitematā Harbour, to the Auckland High Court.

The march is a peaceful but passionate way for my people to express our shared despair and frustrations at the way we continue to be treated by the Crown.

The hīkoi allows many of our people, from our kaumātua through to our mokopuna to come together in solidarity against actions by the Crown which continue to erode the mana of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei across our rohe (area).

It is a chance for our people to demonstrate in a powerful way that we have had enough of the Crown using whenua within the relatively small rohe of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei as compensation for the breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi of other iwi.

**READ MORE:

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei deputy chair Ngarimu Blair says the Crown has created division and hostility amongst iwi.

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9-year old Keith Taylor sits on a fence during the1977 Bastion Point occupation over Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei lands.

It is a process that denigrates my people and fosters division and hostility between once supportive and collegial neighbours.

It is a process that has seen our status as mana whenua diluted through attempts to transfer our lands to other iwi. An action which then becomes a beach-head for those iwi often based as far away as Paeroa and Thames, to expect a say as mana whenua in our lands and the exclusive domain of my ancestors.

It has created a nonsense which sees our voice being forced to compete with the voices of up to 18 other iwi and hapū on engagement and developments on our lands and harbours, often developments we can see from our marae.

It sees the efforts of some seek to impose their histories, associate their whakapapa and add their voices where it does not belong.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has been forced to send the new warriors - lawyers - to do battle with a former foe, onto the new battleground – the High Court.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei deputy chair Ngarimu Blair in central Auckland, where his iwi are based and hold cultural and commercial interests.

It is a battle we enter reluctantly, saddened at the immense cost of time and resources this battle requires, resources better served meeting the immense need the loss of our land has had on our people.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, have known immense loss. Not too many years ago my ancestors held complete domain across our lands which stretch from Mission Bay to Onehunga to Blockhouse Bay to Riverhead and back again to Orakei.

Not so many years ago my people were able to support and protect each other sustained by the fruits and labours of the bountiful whenua and harbours of Tamaki Makaurau.

This all changed with the arrival of the Pākehā.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and to build a relationship with the Crown, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei entered a deed with the Crown to transfer 3,000 acres of land between Hobson Bay, Cox’s Creek and Maungawhau (Mt Eden), a transfer that includes the core of what is now Auckland’s Central Business District.

Unwittingly for our ancestors, and devastatingly, this sparked an insatiable hunger to dispossess my people of our lands. The devastation to my people culminated in 1953 with the tearing down and burning of our marae and our forced removal from Okahu Bay.

In 2011 Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei signed a deed of settlement with the Crown for the many and devastating breaches of the treaty of Waitangi which led to the complete loss of all our land except for a 1/4 acre at Okahu Bay. The council once even tried to take this.

In that settlement, the Crown promised to atone for its actions which had left Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei landless and to repair its relationship with our people based on mutual trust, cooperation and respect for our tikanga and the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles.

And that is what is at the heart of our court action and our hīkoi.

The use of our whenua as compensation to others does not uphold the intent and show atonement. We ask that the Crown stop providing a beachhead for others who seek a say over lands where they have no mana. End a process that unnecessarily complicates the voice of mana whenua. When it should not be this way.

The people of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei have a relatively small tūrangawaewae – a place to stand. If this is lost, then our people are no more. It is why this fight is so important and is one we will ensure all our resources are invested in to ensure justice prevails.

Those neighbouring iwi who continue to look covetously on our lands, we urge you to seek out the many other locations and important cultural whenua that you can seek the return of and compensation for from the Crown in your own lands.

We say no more to using the lands of our people, our ancestors and our mokopuna. We have not and would never seek the lands of others, we ask that others show our people the same respect.

It is not the intention of the hīkoi to disrupt the lives and journeys of those who now share our lands.

But we acknowledge for some, for a short time, there may be some delays.

It will be a very short disruption, when compared to the immense loss, hurt and sadness that the actions of the Crown have inflicted and continue to inflict on Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.

Ngarimu Blair is the deputy chair of Ngāti Whātua Orākei iwi.