Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei: A court decision cannot change the mana whenua of Auckland

Monday, 2 May 2022

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei whānau hikoi to High Court to challenge Crown land settlements. (First published February 2021)

Ngarimu Blair is the deputy chairperson of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei iwi.

OPINION: I received a message of condolence for my iwi following the judgment of the Auckland High Court in our action taken against the Crown.

I returned the condolence to the person who messaged me, because it is an outcome which impacts all Māori, and not just my people.

While the judgment from Justice Matthew Palmer in the Auckland High Court on Thursday unsurprisingly confirmed Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei as ahi kā and mana whenua of central Tāmaki Makaurau, it also acknowledged the right of other iwi to claim mana whenua – if their tikanga allowed it.

Tikanga for 99% of Māori and commonsense I suspect for most in Aotearoa is that the iwi they see every day, who have lived uninterrupted for generations in an area (ahi kā), who continue to practise kaitiakitanga (guardianship), and are doing the mahi across the isthmus through, for example, pōwhiri, karakia, and civic ceremonies, are mana whenua. The local people with tūturu marae, urupā (burial grounds), papakāinga housing, puna reo and kōhanga (early childhood centres).

* Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei holds a hīkoi ahead of court proceedings against the Crown

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei spokesperson Ngarimu Blair.

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

And yet at the heart of this judgment following the claims by a small number of iwi in this case that they have a unique “open borders tikanga” where apparently everything is shared, I wonder if their people are aware of the implications for the whole motu if this new definition of tikanga spreads.

The crowd from Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei outside Auckland High Court welcome the Kaumatua coming out of court with the judges final decision.

Before the judgment was delivered, my Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei people turned out en masse to the Auckland High Court, 400-strong, to hear the judgment of Justice Palmer on a matter crucial to the very essence of my people.

Our old and very young took a 10-minute bus ride, but a large ope (group) walked from our marae and village which sits at the very centre of Tāmaki Makaurau above Ōkahu Bay on the shores of the Waitematā Harbour, to the Auckland High Court. Along the way we visited our urupā, and the old pā site in Judge’s Bay called Taurarua and Waipapa in Parnell, a former village of Ngāti Whatua, that the Crown has offered as compensation in the settlement of a collective iwi based in Thames.

This action by the Government is at the heart of the legal challenge by my people and our opposition and frustration at the Crown’s practice of using whenua within our relatively small rohe as compensation for the breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi of other iwi.

Guided by our kaumātua, we are committed to do all we can to stop this practice in our rohe, which denigrates my people, our whakapapa and history, and is absolutely at odds with what we have always known to be the principles of tikanga Māori.

Our tikanga, and that of the vast majority of iwi across Aotearoa, does not support the use of whenua in our rohe, to settle the Treaty grievances of others. Tikanga does not allow a distant connection to whenua by another group to become a beachhead which then requires the voice of those outsiders to be considered and then required to be consulted on developments in the area of another iwi.

If settlements are based on this new tikanga, then all iwi need to be prepared to have claims by others who have different tikanga to them. Other iwi who believe their history gives them a connection and the right to whenua and a say over the land of others, because their lore says it does.

Major centres where land values have skyrocketed, like in the whenua of Ngāti Whātua, will continue to be popular targets – Tauranga, Hamilton, Napier and Wellington may be next.

This injustice has galvanised my people, and will ensure our absolute commitment to do all we can to resist and oppose this practice, because already it has created a nonsense which sees our voice being forced to compete with those of up to 18 other iwi and hapū on engagement and developments on our whenua and harbours, often developments we can see from our marae.

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

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 Tāmaki 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 3000 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 my tūpuna (ancestors), and devastatingly, this led to a ravenous hunger to dispossess my people of our lands. The devastation to my people culminated in 1952 with the tearing down and burning of our marae and our forced removal from Ōkahu Bay.

It is our understanding of the despair and injustice that left our people landless and on the very margins of the townships that thrived and blossomed on the back of our whenua and resources that is motivation to ensure we will never again accept injustice or the bitter pills of compromise that almost brought our very existence as a people, to an end.

We have built up a powerful base, and a new generation of leaders and warriors who will do all we can to ensure justice for our people. Because we must.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and our connection and position with this whenua is eternal. Our knowledge, intimate desire to protect and nurture these taonga for this and future generations, which comes from being born and growing intrinsically linked to the whenua, is unceasing. As will be our quest for people to be treated justly by the Crown.

Finally, let me ask you this. Who is mana whenua of central Auckland? When asked, which iwi has the right to speak on take (issues) in these lands, who would you instinctively talk to? A court decision cannot and never will change this, and it is for this reason that our battle to have tikanga observed by the Crown will continue. As it would for every iwi that has a heartland where its tikanga reigns.

E kore e riro, e kore e riro!