E oho

The Whakatane Marina Society wants to build a seafront development near one of Ngati Awa’s most culturally significant sites.

Outlined in the Whakatane Beacon earlier this month, the plan includes a marina with a retirement village and residential development.

The front story painted a foregone conclusion with a large developer fronting the project and sympathetic supporters illustrating the benefits of such a development.

However what was missed is the opposition to the proposal and the understanding that there will be many battles fought before any war is won.

And that is why I went to the meeting and workshop held by Te Runanga o Ngati Awa last week.

The two-part meeting was held to help the tribe’s hapu create a submissions to Whakatane council’s proposed District Plan.

On my mind was one issue: the marina.

It is not that I object to a marina on the Ohinemataroa (Whakatane) River. I know that its development would help stimulate the Whakatane economy, perhaps create jobs and definitely attract money.

It is just that I will never accept a marina at that site.

Driven by the Whakatane Marina Society, responsibility for developing the marina proposal has now been given to Whakatane Marina Developments Limited (WMDL).

WMDL has a memorandum of understanding with the Whakatane District Council for the purchase of a site at 60 Bunyan Road.

Another Council−owned parcel of land near the mouth of the Orini Canal is also included in the memorandum of understanding.

The council is keen to see the development because it means they will be able to sell that land for $11 million. It is interesting to note that the sale of that parcel of land is a priority for the council’s chief executive.

However before any commitment can be made developers must ensure the rules (including the Whakatane Council’s District Plan and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s Regional Coastal Management Policy) will allow for a marina at that site.

The Bunyan Rd site, to be used in the development, is separated from the Whakatane River by the Orini Canal and a narrow strip of land that runs between the two waterways. This strip of land is part of the Coastal Protection Zone.

A Coastal Protection Zone is a strip of land adjacent to the coastal marine area along the coastline, according to the Whakatane District Council.

“This zone is intended to define the area in which the plan will manage those adverse effects of development or use which are likely to have a direct effect on the visual amenity and/or ecology of the coast, harbour and river margins, and may provide a level of protection against coastal hazard events. This zone will predominantly be an open space zone, not generally intended for development. "

WMDL have made a submission to the council’s draft District Plan requesting the site be rezoned to rural. This will make developing a marina easier.

“Most of the marina site is fiat land that is used seasonally for cropping. Towards the eastern end of the site Council has constructed a series of ponds which have been used occasionally as settlement ponds for material dredged from the Whakatane River,” says Tim Fergusson in the submission.

“Council currently holds resource consents enabling the use of the dredging settlement ponds and deposition of up to 250,000m3 of dredged material on the site. A small area of land at the far eastern end of the site adjoins the tidal estuary section of the river.”

The submission goes on to say the physical characteristics of the site, its land use and environmental values are very similar to the adjacent property to the west and are rural in nature.

“The marina site does not exhibit high natural character or amenity values and although the site adjoins the Orini Canal, it is not located on the river margin. It is therefore considered to be appropriate to rezone the site from Coastal Protection Zone to Rural Zone, with the exception of a small area at the eastern tip of the property.”

WMDL also state that the Coastal Protection Zone is intended to apply to sites where land use activities are likely to have a direct effect on the "visual amenity and/or ecology of the coast, harbour and river margins".

“In this case, the strip of land between the Orini Canal and the Whakatane River provides visual separation and an effective buffer between activities on the marina site and the river margins.

“Activities on the marina site are no more likely to affect the visual amenity values of the river than activities undertaken on the residential zoned land to the north or rural zoned land to the west of the site.

“The potential for direct effects on the ecology of the river is also avoided by the physical separation from the Whakatane River. Although the marina site directly adjoins the Orini Canal (which flows into the Whakatane River), a Regional Council floodgate controls flows in this waterway.

“The marina site's proximity to the Orini Canal does not increase its potential to affect the ecology of the river any more than any rural properties adjoining either the Kope Canal or Orini Canal further upstream. Even then, this is an indirect effect.”

The submission closes with a statement that the designation in the Operative District Plan is outdated and should be changed in the revised version.

“This is a historical designation which originated from a proposal to develop 60 Bunyan Road for use as playing fields. As is evident by Council's intention to divest the land, this designation is no longer necessary.”

But the WMDL misses two crucial points.

The “marina site” is within a stone’s throw of the Ngati Awa urupa, Opihi Whanaungakore.

Under WMDL’s proposal there is a “buffer zone” between the site and the urupa however the water entrance to the site will be right next to the ancient cemetery.

The final resting place for some of Ngati Awa’s most notable leaders, Opihi Whanaungakore is considered a wahi tapu and a culturally significant site.

Opposition from the iwi is, therefore, likely to be strong.

Secondly the site that WMDL propose to dig up and develop is a known contaminated site.

One of 36 known contaminated sites in Whakatane, that land was used in the 1960s to dump toxic waste from the Whakatane Board Mill. It has been proven that the chemical which has leeched into the soil at those sites can lead to diabetes, pancreatic cancer, leukemia, auto-immune diseases and other disorders.

It is certain that the watchdog group Sawmill Workers Against Poisons (SWAP) will continue to oppose any development of contaminated land.

The runanga will also have a responsibility to ensure that the tribe’s concerns are voiced in the appropriate channels and our taonga is protected.

But it is necessary that we, the people, ensure our opinions are heard.

I am in the process of writing a submission to the council’s proposed District Plan on behalf of my hapu, Ngati Hokopu ki Wairaka.

Stopping the development of a marina at a site near Opihi Whanaungakore is important to Ngati Hokopu ki Wairaka because it is not the appropriate location for that sort of development.

We intend to oppose WMDL previous submission to the draft District Plan and support the retention of the Coastal Protection Zone for the land needed for proposed “marina site”.

I am sure we are not the only hapu who hold this belief.

However I was disappointed that when I went to the meeting and workshop held by the runanga, there were only three hapu represented.

It is important that we all have our say because we do not want to have to tell our children and their children that: one day we woke up and there was a marina in our backyard keeping our tipuna company.

The runanga is holding another meeting on August 13 and then a workshop on August 15. I encourage others to attend or to start putting together submissions for their hapu because this is important.

Submissions to the council’s proposed District Plan close on September 13 and we must engage if we are to be navigators of our own destiny.

Ma te wa

The house that Wepiha built 2

Ok so a German reporter, her photographer and two Maori entrepreneurs walk onto a marae in Whakatane and are greeted by a woman demanding money.

Sounds like the start of a bad joke, right?

Well no, unfortunately it is a brief description of what happened when my cousin William Stewart tried to take some of international manuhiri to visit the Mataatua Wharenui.

William owns a fledgling tourism company based in Whakatane called Nativ ConnectioNZ with two of our other cousins, Briton Williams and Leslie Manuel.

Their aim is to offer international tourists insights into indigenous Aotearoa by exploring traditional Maori concepts and customs through a series of unique and personal Maori experiences. In other words they offer a range of tourist products that include guided walking tours where the boys tell tribal stories and other anecdotes at some of the most beautiful points in Whakatane, the opportunity to put down your own hangi and then share that meal in an intimate back-yard setting and a chance to share in that warm fuzzy feeling that most Maori feel when they go home.

The foundation of the products is the Maori belief in the responsibility of manaakitanga.

It is an idea that the cousins have been working on for a number of years, with a range of skills and experiences they would quietly mull over the vision whenever they had a chance to get together.

Finally last year they got to launch their idea after securing a contract to cook a hangi for 600 Australian cyclists passing through Whakatane on their way to Rotorua as part of 5 day tour of the North Island.

The event was a success and the cousins used the money they made from the venture to launch Nativ ConnectioNZ: Real Maori Experiences.

At the time William was working as a consultant for the runanga applying the expertise he had gleaned from the four years at Tourism New Zealand working as a Media Advisor.

As part of his contract with the runanga William managed the project team that were charged wth the respnsibility of delivering a “world class” market-aligned visitor experience at Mataatua Wharenui. 

The project team, which included very highly regarded Wellington consultancies Leuthart & Co and Click Suite, had written a strategy for how the $1 million visitor experience at Mataatua wharenui should be rolled into market and it was obvious that they had a clear vision of what was needed for the experience to be commercially succesful.

In addition to creating a world class product William also believed that the visitor experience would provide much needed employment for the iwi and provide the runanga with a strong platform from which to grow a commercial tourism portfolio.

However when the proverbial hit the fan, it became obvious that there were those within the runanga who did not share William’s vision and therefore his future at the organisation was uncertain, so he pitched an offer as a compromise.

In the offer he outlined what he believed were the negatives that the runanga faced in terms of the visitor experience including the tension between allowing the wharenui to earn its keep and the belief by some that it should be accessible to the iwi 365 years days a year and also the expensive upkeep of the wharenui.

With an annual operation expense of almost $170,000 recorded in 2012, William acknowledged the runanga’s reluctance to commit anymore tribal funds to the complex.

So he suggested the runanga could ‘lease’ the facility to NATIVConnectioNZ Ltd between 9am to 10am 364 days per year, with the exception of Christmas day, to conduct a one hour Mataatua experience.

He said his company would be willing to pay $100+GST for each hourly engagement, which would put it in par with current conference charge outs of $1000 per day.

According to William the benefits of the suggestion were that the wharenui would then be available to the iwi to use for the rest of the day from 10am, the runanga had the opportunity to earn the passive income of $36,400 and the $1 million tourism investment would be able to be marketed as it was planned by the project team.

It was also understood that should demand for the product increase then Nativ ConnectioNZ would be keen to apply for an additional hour between 6pm and 7pm, taking the possible income to more than $70,000.

The offer was initially made to the runanga through accountant Murray Haines and then to  NAGHL through Graham Pryor. At that stage William was hopeful that he would be able to make a presentation to the board so that they could consider the offer.

However as each board meeting came and went William and the Native ConnectioNZ boys failed to get admitted on the agenda.

Finally frustrated at the lack of traction in just getting time to present their idea, they went to the Ngati Hokopu Hapu meeting in November with their proposal.

Their goal was to seek Ngati Hokopu’s support in getting time on the agenda at the next board meeting.

To add weight to their grievance they also shared a story about how in the previous week they had hosted a German magazine to promote their business.

As part of the day they took the group that included the German reporter to the wharenui to take in the light show and tour.

When the group arrived at the wharenui there was some time until the morning show began and so William and Les decided to introduce their guests to their direct ancestor Toihau, who sits front centre as the Pou Mua, to explain and authenticate their connection to the house, the land and the people of the area.

Just as William was explaining his and Leslie’s conncetion to Toihau, the Marae general manager rounded the corner demanding to know if the group were paying customers.

Rather than introducing herself to the visitors, she continued to tell William off for not seeking permission from the runanga to enter the marae grounds.

Insulted and saddened the boys chose to usher their manuhiri from the marae and they returned to William’s home on Harvey Street to wait for the hangi to finish cooking.

After the meal William offered to take the group back to the wharenui so they could see the light show. However the group chose not to go back to the wharenui saying they did not feel welcome at the marae and preferred to stay at William’s home.

The story shocked Ngati Hokopu and at that time it was undertaken that hapu representative Charlie Bluett would approach runanga chairman Te Kei Merito to request a time at the next board meeting for William and his lads to make their presentation.

Mr Merito’s response was that while he supported the communication he wanted to be able to present a charter for the Mataatua wharenui before William’s proposal could be considered.

That charter was presented at the December meeting and since then the board now meet on a bi-monthly basis.

It has been seven months since William first made the proposal to the runanga and still he has not been given time to present his company’s case to the board.

And while they have all but accepted that they are not going to be able to gain access to the wharenui, William and his lads have continued to slog it out in order to get Nativ ConnectioNZ up and running with the goal of providing jobs for not only themselves but also for others.

They have come with alternative products including using the museum in Whakatane to try and illustrate some of our proud history.

They have hosted a swag of tourists, operators, film crews and other manuhiri trying to get their product out there.

And they have been innovative in their approach to sharing some of our proud tikanga and stories often calling on friends, family and other contacts to ensure their business is a success.

As a result I have been fortunate enough to be part of many of the tours as an extra pair of hands.

Whether it is watching the German reporter put down his own hangi in a hole that has been heated by a gas torch and a leaf blower or collecting pipis with the British backpacker and the girl from Switzerland or even waking up at 5.30am to cook smoked fish and white sauce with the Kahawai that was caught the day before by the American and Canadian – the experiences have been amazing.

The whole approach to opening up your home and delivering on our ancestral reponsibility to manaaki manuhiri reminds me that our culture is beautiful and unique.

It is just a pity that the boys’ cannot use the wharenui to showcase that ethos.

Meanwhile runanga chief executive Enid Ratāhi-Pryor is set to attend the Ngati Hokopu hapu meeting this weekend and along with all of the other questions I have already sentto  her, I would also like to know why my cousins still haven’t been given a chance to pitch their idea to the board?

Next week I plan to give an account of the Ngati Hokopu meeting that is to be held on Sunday at 11am at Wairaka Marae. Perhaps I will see you there?

Ma te wa.

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