And what does tino rangatiratanga mean to us?
Written with thanks to Willow Kanara and Hannah Swedlund.
Today, Protect Pūtiki celebrates its first anniversary of an empowering, unpredictable and tumultuous year protecting Pūtiki Bay, Waiheke Island. We have remained for many reasons, underpinned by the desire to assert and achieve tino rangatiratanga over the bay. At the same time, the Wellington protests have prompted discussions around which struggles for freedom and justice are expressions of tino rangatiratanga. Where must we direct energy in the journey of decolonising Aotearoa? With this in mind, we reflect briefly on our time shared protecting Pūtiki thus far, and what tino rangatiratanga looks like for us.
A year ago
Exactly 365 days ago today, developers Kennedy Point Marina, with construction company Heron Construction Limited, landed on the shores of Waiheke with a 942-tonne barge “Calliope”, 116-tonne tug boats and a construction crew ready to work.
A resource consent was granted by Auckland Council for the privatisation of an unprecedented level of ocean, claiming to bring a “legal” and “inevitable” future for this bay. The resource consent for the marina had been challenged through the courts by the Ngāti Pāoa Trust Board and the Waiheke community for more than years prior, but the developers arrived nonetheless.
This theft, in our view, of the Hauraki Gulf/ Tikapa moana was to be concretised in a 7.3 ha marina with berthage for 186 top-end boats and was to be built with flying colours. Construction looked to be smooth sailing. We were to move aside.
But of course, we didn’t.
Mana whenua, tangata whenua and Waiheke locals, though expected to submit to the will of the development company, did quite the opposite. We organised around a pre-existing and continual energy to stand for tino rangatiratanga.
We were expected to concede that Kennedy Point Marina lawfully knew what was best for Ngāti Pāoa, the Waiheke community, the environment, the taonga species, the island and our home. However, despite its claims, we recognised that the Crown’s law often obstructs the upholding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the protection of our environment. If Pūtiki wasn’t protected under the law, then we were to stand as a community to build towards a future in which Pūtiki, and places like it, would be unquestionably protected.
So where are we now?
Protect Pūtiki, comprised of mana whenua Ngāti Pāoa, mātāwaka and members of the community, continue to assert kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and protection at the bay.
The form of our presence has shifted throughout the year as the number of police has fluctuated, ranging from two officers a day to 100. The number of people rallying around the protection of Pūtiki on Waiheke, nationally and internationally, swelled. Reaching and resonating with so many people evoked attempts to disempower our presence and momentum by reframing the significance of our kaitiakitanga as the committing of crime. Classic!
Police presence instantly creates tense environments, historically in kaupapa Māori and today. We were monitored for being there. Arrested for the violent crime of being in the water. We continue to face criminal charges for “wilfully trespassing”.
Being in our ancestral waters is a crime unbeknown to us and, as people whose ancestors arrived in this bay 800 years ago, shows that we are still being colonised. Despite the fear of our Goliath resulting in repetitive lashes of the sword, we have remained. Our slingshot is filled with water from the ocean we belong to.
Police line the beach, trespassing people from the foreshore/seabed.
The threads woven by our members remain the same; connection to hītori, to storytelling, and to te taiao (the natural environment). We are still here, both actively doing things ourselves, and expecting protection to be enforced by those with the power and opportunity to do so; Auckland Council, the government and the department of conservation.
What is tino rangatiratanga to us?
Kathryn Ngapo (Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi), lifelong community member raised within the ring of Pūtiki Bay, completes her ninth year in defending Waiheke bays from marina developments.
“Defending Waiheke bays has been an exercise of my own and others’ kaitiakitanga. Tino rangatiratanga to me, is when we don’t have to fight to be listened to,” she says. “It’s when laws cease to give away our rights as Māori. It’s when the laws governing us recognise and incorporate te ao Māori in ways which can’t be ignored or bypassed, because tino rangatiratanga is fundamentally honoured. Tino rangatiratanga is also about collectively and continually sharing stories that share te ao Māori, defend our environment and lead change.”
“We have to ask ourselves, what is tapu or sacred for Māori? Is a waka landing site from the migration sacred? Is a place where many battles were fought, where there was bloodshed and where the koiwi of our ancestors lie, sacred? Is the most historic and important bay and pā for mana whenua on Waiheke, Te Pūtiki o Kahumatamomoe, sacred? Yes. These things are vitally sacred and vitally tapu for Pūtiki.”
The sharing of our history in relation to the place we are protecting has been an intentional step led by Kathryn towards reconnection for everybody. What was commonly known as Kennedy Point only 12 months ago is now widely referenced as Pūtiki by locals and also nationally.
“Pūtiki is the place where Te Arawa waka landed around 700 to 800 years ago, the site of many great battles and much bloodshed, the bay to which Hauraki iwi have returned over the centuries. Pūtiki was full of life, a gift from Papatānuku of kaimoana and manu, fertile places to garden, ngahere from which to gather resources, springs and streams for water, many bays and waterways for the movements of waka. As tangata whenua it is our responsibility to protect them for their own sake and for our future generations. To acknowledge te ao Māori is to acknowledge the Māori perspective and our rights to tino rangatiratanga embedded in Te Tiriti, including the rights embodied in kaitiakitanga.”
Bianca Ranson (Ngāpuhi), raised on the island and member of Mauri o te Moana and Piritahi Marae, is also a vessel of reconnection for our multi-generational group.
“Creating a snapshot of life in the bay early on has allowed us to do the indispensable work of monitoring how construction is having a devastating effect on wildlife habitats within Pūtiki. Colonialism and the Tohunga Suppression Act brought separation and ongoing disconnection of tangata whenua from actively applying mātauranga within our environment. This traditional knowledge was pushed underground and is held by few tohunga mātauranga alive today.”
Bianca is inspired and led by whaea Ramari Oliphant-Stewart, tohunga mātauranga who was recently honoured as the first indigenous wāhine to have a species of whale, named after her, “Ramari Beaked Whale”.
“We are fortunate to be led by Ramari and to see kaitiaki observing and understanding our taonga species and the mauri of Pūtiki. This includes its inability to withstand the marina construction due to biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation that has already been happening for decades. Pūtiki Bay is a reconnection to mātauranga and active kaitiakitanga that has for too long been dismissed and ignored. It gives us hope that Protect Pūtiki has inspired a generation to understand our wildlife and the importance of protecting it.”
Tino rangatiratanga is mātauranga being at the forefront of decisions made in relation to our taonga species and moana. It is creating opportunities for kaitiaki to wānanga and apply traditional knowledge to inform each other of the capacity of our bay to withstand construction. “We have identified that in no way can our vulnerable wildlife and fragile ecosystem withstand what’s ahead of them without significant harm and displacement,” says Ranson. “Mātauranga is not for bridging into institutions or an afterthought. It is what guides us in our responsibility to conduct ourselves correctly in our relationship with the moana. A relationship which is tapu.”
“We are in a climate emergency and we need climate action. We are seeing the opposite at Pūtiki Bay. That is why we are here.”
To conclude
Feelings such as the loss of freedom and ongoing injustice have persisted for tangata whenua since colonisation and are very palpable today. By recognising these energies and inter-generational experiences within ourselves, we have directed their expression to the protection of the bay and all this encompasses.
We often fly the tino ranagatiratanga flag at Pūtiki and a strong gust of wind accentuates the flapping of the fabric. We know tawhirimatea is rippling over the moana, making her dance in the same way. We fly the flag in honour of our tūpuna and the injustices they faced, with our own experience salty on the tip of our tongue. We fly it for Māori activists that have fought for generations, and we fly it for our mokopuna to come.
The internal sense of injustice against the environment and against ourselves is knowledge waiting to be acted on. Which kaupapa will this lead us all towards in 2022?