Dr Rawiri Taonui | Ihumātao Understanding the Agreement 28 Dec 2020 22:51 PM
Author: Dr Rawiri Taonui
More Related Stories
Dr Rawiri Taonui | Ihumātao Understanding the Agreement
When Te Ahiwaru-Ngāti Māhuta made their stand behind flimsy palisades of pallets and nylon at Ihumātao few predicted they would win against conglomerate Fletcher Building. Despite ridicule by Fletchers, right-wing commentators and journalists, MPs from Act, National, New Zealand First and occasionally from their relations in Te Kawerau ā Maki, their five-year showdown took a major forward when the Labour government signed an agreement with the Kīngitanga and Fletcher Building.
Led by a new generation of young Māori leaders with wāhine Pania Newton and Qiane Matata-Sipu at the fore, Te Ahiwaru won because they stood in the spirit of 160 years of ancestors subjugated but never broken. Sustained by elders and whānau from Makaurau Marae, super-confident millennial-GenZ peers unimpressed w
Editorial: Grievances can be appeased at Ihumātao
19 Dec, 2020 04:00 PM
3 minutes to read
The Māori words for self-determination are spelt out at Ihumātao. Photo / Sylvie Whinray, File
NZ Herald
EDITORIAL
There are several reasons why Ihumātao is important - many of them embedded in the past but resounding still today. Early ancestors connected to the land include Mataaho, after who Ihumātao, or Te Ihu o Mataaho (the nose of Mataaho) is named, according to an account by Auckland War Memorial Museum history curator Lucy Mackintosh.
READ MORE:
Archaeologists have also confirmed Māori were present on the Māngere-Puhinui coastline by around 1450 and were gardening on the lava fields at Ihumātao by the end of the 1500s.
4 months ago
Te Paati Māori Co-leader Rawiri Waititi is welcoming the Government’s announcement that the Ihumātao land is to be purchased from Fletchers and a Rōpū Whakahaere, with a mana whenua majority, established to determine how the land is protected and utilised for generations to come.
“This agreement is a huge victory for the mana whenua of Ihumātao who have succeeded in protecting their whenua for future generations. Under the leadership of Pania Newton and SOUL they mobilised the country and ensured that their whenua was not permanently alienated,” said Mr Waititi.
“We congratulate the Kīngitanga and mana whenua of Ihumātao for leading this process and for their generosity in negotiating with the Crown for the return of whenua that has always been theirs.
SOUL co-spokespeople Qiane Matata-Sipu and Pania Newton at Ihumātao.
Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers
In a conference this afternoon, Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL) group spokesperson Pania Newton said she had mixed feelings about today s announcement.
The group said the decision affirmed international commitments to indigenous rights and the place of tangata whenua in Aotearoa.
SOUL also thanked Kiingi Tūheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero Te Tuawhitu and his representatives for facilitating the resolution made today.
It said there was more work to do, but that today s resolution represented the start of the next phase in the process.
Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers
Ihumātao: Protesters gather to mark one year since police eviction sparked protests.
Ihumātao in South Auckland was confiscated by the Crown in the 1800s during the Waikato Invasion – a campaign to stamp out the Māori King movement and clear lands for European settlement. Unhappy at the plans, campaigners established a “kaitiaki village” on Ihumātao Quarry Rd and have been living there full time, claiming the land is a sacred Māori site and should be preserved for future generations.
Matthew Rosenberg/Stuff
During the height of the campaign for Ihumātao’s return to mana whenua, campaigners regularly faced police.