Waitara: A Second Reading

Continuing the conversation about a very old land grab

by vivian Hutchinson

August 2017 35 min read download PDF for print

Ehara te Tiriti i te mea hei whakataunga.
Me whakahōnore kē!
The Treaty is not for settling.
It is for honouring!

A land grab in the 21st century is not a matter of soldiers and guns with Majors and Generals, and Colonial Native Ministers riding on white horses. It is not so obviously a matter of surveyors, or pegs and property maps.

Instead, a modern land grab is more a matter of lawyers, politicians, policy advisers and public submissions. The instruments of extraction here are legislation, reports from Parliamentary Select Committees, press releases, public relations and social media.

The grab is not so obvious when looks like a government MP sitting in Parliament, and propping up his iPad on his desk so that he can photograph it to share a special moment with his Facebook feed.

The iPad here is displaying a press release about a contentious Bill that had been drawn up by the New Plymouth District Council and, as the local MP, Jonathan Young had sponsored it to the House. The headline in the press release reads: “Historic Day for New Zealand: Maori Affairs Committee recommends that the New Plymouth District Council’s Waitara Lands Bill be approved”.

An iPad in the House – photo Jonathan Young/Facebook

Jonathan Young introduced his Bill to Parliament on Wednesday 14th September 2016. This was already a significant day on the calendar for the original Maori owners of this land, as it was the traditional observance of Maori Language Day.

It was also the anniversary of the day that Dame Whina Cooper started her historic month-long Maori Land March from Te Hapua to Parliament Grounds ... to protest against the continuing legislative theft of Maori land.

You may well wonder why it is, after 40 years of progress with apologies and settlements following the 1975 Maori Land March, that the New Plymouth District Council and the Taranaki Regional Council and the Crown are still planning to sell the Waitara lands? And how come this can still take place in 2017 over the very clear protests of the tangata whenua who had their land stolen?

The answer is a sobering picture of power and memory and race relations in our modern nation. And it is also a story of resistance to the continuing loss of Maori land, and hope that the long troubles of the Waitara lands can be resolved with genuine peace and reconciliation.

The Waitara lands have a special place in New Zealand’s history because this is where the Taranaki Land Wars first broke out on 17th March 1860.

The first shots of this war were fired at Te Kohia Pa, which had been erected on the edge of an area of land known as the Pekapeka Block (which makes up about half of the township of present-day Waitara). The ownership of the Pekapeka Block was in dispute in 1860, but the government had already begun to survey it for sale to new settlers.

Waitara also has a special place in New Zealand’s history because it reminds us of the original sin of our new nation: the theft of Maori land. This land grab was enabled through the legislative confiscation of huge areas of New Zealand by the new settler government.

In Taranaki, the politicians of the day told themselves that the land confiscations were a punishment for the organised resistance by Maori “rebels”. It seems pretty clear now that these “rebels” were simply protecting their own property.

And after the confiscations, the original Maori owners were forced to watch and accept a huge influx of new immigrants to the province, who then made their own homes and farms and livelihoods on the back of these stolen lands.

Since 1860, the original question of the ownership of the Waitara Lands has had rulings from Governor George Grey (in 1863), the Sim Royal Commission of Inquiry into Confiscated Lands (in 1927) and the Waitangi Tribunal (in 1996) ... and they all have acknowledged that these lands were taken illegally from their rightful owners.

The latest Waitara Lands Bill concerns the remaining leasehold lands within the region, which still are in public ownership 150 years after the original confiscations. The Bill proposes that the holders of the 778 leasehold titles in Waitara will be able to freehold their sections.

During the formal hearings on this Bill, the New Plymouth District Council, The Taranaki Regional Council, the MP sponsoring the legislation, and the various Crown agencies advising on it ... have all agreed that this land was stolen. Plain and simple.

But giving it back has been anything but plain and simple.

What was broken, cut-up and distributed in the 1860s has seemed almost impossible to put back together again. And “all the King’s horses and all the King’s men” have been unable to translate the acknowledgement of historical wrong-doing ... into present-day justice.

the billboard on Devon St, in central New Plymouth photo/vivian Hutchinson

Not long before Jonathan Young MP sat in Parliament celebrating the successful passing of the Second Reading of his Bill ... a billboard had been erected on the central main street of his New Plymouth electorate.

It showed the horses and men of the Colonial British Army standing on the Waitara lands. The land itself was drawn as a living entity in the distinctive style of Taranaki Maori carving.

This illustration had been provided by the prominent Maori artist Cliff Whiting, who had done a series of drawings about the Waitara Lands dispute in 1978. Whiting sadly passed away not long after the New Plymouth billboard was erected.

The billboard read: It started in Waitara. Let it end in Waitara. Return the Stolen land.

This message carried no signature of who had placed it there ... and this had led to a minor controversy in the local newspaper, The Taranaki Daily News.

The billboard had been organised by members of the Taranaki Maori Women’s Network, a loose collection of women from iwi throughout Taranaki who were supporting the Waitara hapu of Manukorihi and Otaraua in their fight to regain ownership and control of their former lands.

The Women’s network had been supporting the Waitara hapu at the Maori Affairs Select Committee hearings that were held at the Novotel Hotel in New Plymouth in November 2016, and later at the Owae Marae in Waitara in February 2017.

They had also organised and presented a petition with over 2,300 signatures calling on all members of Parliament to challenge and vote against the Bill, and encouraging the Council and the Government to create a new conversation that will be focused on healing and social justice.

The submissions at the public hearings were almost overwhelming in the numbers of people – Maori and Pakeha – who spoke to their rejection of the Bill. And the majority of the submitters were also loud and clear about their rejection of a process that had continued to marginalise the primary claims of the Waitara hapu.

It was not the place of the Maori Affairs Select Committee to defend the Bill, as it had been drawn up by the New Plymouth District Council. Their job was to listen and question and report on it, and suggest improvements and alternatives.
But the large number of submitters who spoke against the Bill had had an obvious effect on the members of the committee. As they considered and prepared their own report on the Bill, they were being left in no doubt that it was now their turn to step into the firing line of one of our nation’s longest-running disputes.

Maori Affairs Select Committee in session at the Novotel Hotel, New Plymouth 18th November 2016 photo/Taranaki Daily News ... L-R: Marama Fox (Maori Party), Jonathan Young (National), Chester Borrows (National), Tutehounuku Korako (National, Chairman), Nanaia Mahuta (Labour), Adrian Rurawhe (Labour), Catherine Delahunty (Green), Pita Paraone (New Zealand First).

And it was quite clear to them that there were many things fundamentally wrong with this piece of legislation. Even Jonathan Young himself was ready to concede that the Bill he was sponsoring was deeply flawed.

There were many reasons for this, but the most obvious one was that the needs and views of the original owners of the land were not being fully listened to and respected.

When it came to the question of how to deal with such an important Maori land claim, this NPDC Waitara Lands legislation was an example of how the national and Parliamentary consensus (even from within our most conservative political party) had moved well ahead of the political and bureaucratic world-view that still existed in the New Plymouth District and Taranaki Regional Councils.

Kuia Te Rau Aroha Watene Taungatara Denness at the head of the Peace for Pekapeka hikoi through the Waitara Lands, 21st September 2016 photo/Taranaki Daily News

The legislation as drawn up by the NPDC was originally intended to be considered in Parliament by the Local Government and Environment Committee. This is because it was being seen largely as a complex matter of local authority leasehold management.

But on 21st September 2016, the day the Bill had its first reading in the Houses of Parliament in Wellington, a major hikoi took place that walked over the Pekapeka Block and through the streets of Waitara to Owae Marae.

The hikoi drew people from throughout Taranaki, and had been organised by the Taranaki Maori Women’s Network in their support of the Waitara hapu and their role as guardians or kaitiaki with mana whenua over this land.

As the Bill was starting to be read in the House, MPs had their attention drawn to the people who were walking through the streets of Waitara. They were reminded that they were about to discuss the historic and still controversial Pekapeka Block.

And, after some last-minute on-the-floor interventions by Green MP Metiria Turei and the Deputy Speaker Chester Burrows, Committee Chairman Nuk Korako, and the sponsoring MP Jonathan Young ... the Bill changed its destination within the House and was referred for consideration to the Maori Affairs Select Committee.

(... click for larger view ...) photos of Peace for Pekapeka hikoi taken by Jane Dove Juneau, 21st September 2016

It was probably a natural thing that the views of tangata whenua would be taken much more seriously at a Maori Affairs Select Committee. It enabled the whole question of the Waitara leasehold lands to be considered in a wider historical context, and by committee members who understood more deeply the implications of this legislation to hapu and iwi. It also meant that the local Taranaki councils had to step up to a new negotiating table.

Poster for Peace for Pekapeka Hikoi 21st September 2016

And so it was. And as already mentioned, the public hearings at the Novotel and at Owae Marae saw an overwhelming number of people speak in rejection of the legislation. www.taranaki.gen.nz/waitarasubmissions

Jonathan Young later told Hokonui Radio that after the Owae hearings, he was driving to Hastings with his wife and he came to the decision that he had to do something about this. Young then came up with a plan to alter the legislation so that it would more decently recognise the claims of the Waitara hapu, and give them a much better slice of the pie when it came to the land sales. Young said: “... I came back, went to the NPDC, to the hapu and to different people. Everyone thought my plan would work ... and it has.”

Maori Affairs Select Committee Hearing at Te Ika a Maui, Owae Marae 17 February 2017 photo/Taranaki Daily News

What followed was a wholesale rewriting of the Waitara Lands Bill with the help of officials from the Office of Treaty Settlements. This was a complex matter of special meetings with various interested parties and authorities, and the Committee kept on delaying the publication of its report until the re-writing of the legislation was complete.

Then on Wednesday 2nd August 2017, the Maori Affairs Committee report was released ... complete with the media interviews by the New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom and Jonathan Young about this being an “historic day”.

The Mayor celebrated that this was “an example of how we can work through an extraordinarily complex matter ... to achieve a great result for our community while balancing the needs of all our 80,000 residents...” Other politicians observed that the solutions being proposed in the Second Reading of the Bill were a very “clever” solution to a difficult problem.

New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom

But once you got past the hyperbole, and a certain amount of election-year grandstanding ... you start to realise that this new Bill was being proposed and celebrated well before the Waitara hapu itself had fully discussed the options within this vastly changed legislation.

The public relations spin was definitely premature. There was no avoiding the fact that while the main politicians were making a song-and-dance about acknowledging a troubled history, and better recognising the claims of the Waitara hapu ... there were still significant parts of the Bill which many hapu leaders had consistently made clear that they had trouble with.

Not the least of their concerns is the major sticking point that the hapu will still have to pay to get back much of their own stolen property.

The votes for the Waitara Lands Bill 2nd Reading – Jonathan Young/Facebook

Away from the radio stations and the press statements and social media, the fact that the Waitara hapu still needed to think about it was properly acknowledged in Parliament when the Second Reading was held. Jonathan Young also conceded that he was giving up on his goal to get the legislation passed into law before Parliament went into recess ahead of the 2017 elections.

This meant that the Waitara hapu were being given a few months to come up with their response to the changed legislation, and to their new role within it ... before the Bill would probably be taken forward by a new government later in the year.

Now let’s get this into some perspective.

The Waitara hapu of Manukorihi and Otaraua live within one of Taranaki’s lowest socio-economic communities. In the New Zealand of 2017, this means a lot in terms of their daily struggle to keep families fed and clothed and sheltered.

Their alienation from their own assets over 150 years has had definite consequences to their survival and to the level of shared trauma that has also persisted in their lives over that time.

These families heroically struggle with their own infrastructure issues and internal politics, while generously providing the hospitality and manuhiritanga that is expected of those with mana whenua over the Waitara area.

They have endured a very long process of public engagement over this Waitara Lands Bill. For some of them, this has still felt like being on the receiving end of a colonial process of power where the New Plymouth District Council and the Taranaki Regional Council have continued to de-legitimise their views and marginalise their contributions in shaping possible solutions.

As the Otaraua Chairman Rawiri Doorbar told the Maori Affairs committee hearings at Owae Marae: they are tired. Most of their leadership are also holding down full-time jobs, and then are expected to step up to being “partners” in this process when they get home from work.

They don’t have the resources to employ consultants, lawyers and real estate advisers, or have the time to grow the trusting relationships they would need to have with such professionals.

And now at this last-minute stage when the major politicians are finally recognising the primary claims of the Waitara hapu over these disputed lands ... these families are being given just a few months (in an election year) to come up with a considered response to a completely new version of the legislation.

Waitara and the Pekapeka Block

Jonathan Young has told Parliament that officials expect that “... about $28 million will be available over the next 20 years for hapu to buy, develop, and maintain land in and around Waitara.”

Of course it looks a very tempting offer. That level of money speaks quite loudly. And because the new offer was drawn up under the guidance of the Office of Treaty Settlements ... it probably represents the consensus of compromise that exists around such settlements in 2017.

But there is no way that the institutions participating in this particular compromise – the Taranaki councils, the government agencies, or even a modern Crown-mandated iwi authority – would themselves submit to such a timetable for the consideration of an offer like this.

There is no way that these institutions would entertain a similar offer without going through a rigorous amount of due diligence and professional advice.

But we seem to be expecting the Waitara hapu to do such a thing – with such immense consequences for themselves and with repercussions for their communities.

The fact that this is happening in this way shows us that – after all the successes of settlements and apologies over the last forty years – our national and local politicians have still got a lot to learn about the process of reconciliation with Maori.

New Plymouth District Council (Waitara Lands) Bill 2018

Let’s look deeper into the new version of the Bill.

Yes, the Second Reading version of this legislation contains substantial changes. It has gone through over 35 redrafts. There is hardly a page that does not have either new clauses inserted, or something deleted.

But the Bill has not changed its primary purpose and objectives. Although the New Plymouth District Council has made significant concessions to the Waitara hapu, the Council has not budged from their original intention to sell this stolen property.

The Bill will enable the current leaseholders to freehold their sections ... a process that will privatise this stolen land, and put it beyond the reach of its original owners.

The Bill encourages the hapu to consider an arrangement in which they will be able to buy back their own stolen property with some of the money gained from the land sales. Actually, the Bill only provides the Waitara hapu with about a quarter of the funds from the sales in order to do this.

This concept of having to buy back your own stolen property continues to be a real barrier to resolving the Waitara grievances.

This point was acknowledged by Labour’s new Deputy-Leader Kelvin Davis when he spoke in the House during the Second Reading. While supporting the Bill, Davis said that it was as if someone was to steal his car and the police came along and said "Kelvin, we've got your car here, but we want you to pay to have it returned." Davis said he would not be terribly happy about that ... but in effect, this is what Te Atiawa were being asked to do.

Meanwhile, the Taranaki Regional Council has also not budged from their original intention to use their former "endowment" funds from these lands to subsidize their statutory obligations to look after the Waitara River.

The costs of looking after every other river in Taranaki are paid for out of Regional rates levied on every Taranaki citizen and property owner. But in the case of Waitara, the original and current owners of the leasehold lands are still being expected to pay double for such a service.

What is new in the Bill is that it offers a co-governance arrangement with tangata whenua on the management of the Waitara River, which is probably a good thing. But this arrangement is no compensation for the continuing injustice of what the people of Waitara are still being expected to pay.

The Bill does give back land more directly to the Waitara hapu, or to the Te Atiawa iwi authority ... which is also a good thing. This includes about 60 hectares of reserve, and another 16 hectares which are available for residential development. The Council says that this means 45% of the endowment land “would be returned to mana whenua”. The hapu are also being given the rights of first refusal (RFR) on the possible future sales of some council-owned properties.
It does seem almost generous when you put it that way ... but then you have to remember that this is 45% of only the stolen land that still remains in public ownership. The rest of the former confiscated Maori lands of Waitara township have already been privatised at some time over the last 150 years.

As the former Te Atiawa Treaty settlements negotiator Peter Moeahu pointed out at the Select Committee hearings, the land on offer deserves closer scrutiny. He notes that the public reserves will essentially remain in NPDC control. He also maintains that the residential land for development offered in the Bill is part of an old rubbish dump. And he knows of no NPDC plan to sell the RFR properties, so these parts of the offer are being made without immediate benefit to the Waitara hapu.

Finally, in spite of all the delays and broken deadlines, when you read the report of the Maori Affairs Select Committee it still feels like a rush-job. And it is important to note that the committee have arrived at their recommendations without a consensus.

The recommendation for the amended Bill to go forward to its Second Reading was supported by the National-led government and the Labour Party and the Maori Party members. The New Zealand First and Green Party members had their dissent recorded in the report, but for different reasons.

New Zealand First was against the establishment of any statutory authority (in this case, a co-governance board for the Waitara River) with a membership that included people who had not been properly elected to do the job.
The Greens were adamant that they were not going to support the Bill any further in the House until it was more fully considered and supported by the Waitara hapu.

So ... in the twilight zone of a national election and the formation of a new government, the Waitara hapu are being left to do their own “due diligence”, and to make their decisions on whether they support or decline their new role within this Bill.

There’s a lot to talk about in a few short months, and many questions to resolve. Whatever they decide will naturally be up to them. And like any group of families ... there are a diversity of attitudes and opinions that need to be worked through.

At the time of writing this article, no one can be certain that the Bill will definitely be taken forward by a new government ... or if it will lapse at this stage of its Second Reading, and the New Plymouth District Council will be forced to start again.

And similarly, it is not at all that clear what will happen if the Waitara hapu decline to accept the “opportunities” that are being presented to them in the latest version of the legislation.

10.

Early on the morning of the day that the public hearings were being held at Waitara, a small group of the Taranaki Maori Women’s Network gathered in the rain at Robe Street Park, outside the Courthouse in New Plymouth.

They were standing around a bronze statue of Frederic Alonzo Carrington – the man often referred to as “the Father of New Plymouth”. Carrington had been the chief surveyor of the Plymouth Company who in 1841 selected the site of New Plymouth and oversaw the surveying of the street plans for town. At the time, his assistant surveyor was his younger brother, Octavius Carrington.

Moewai Aterea leading karakia with members of the Taranaki Maori Women’s Network gathered around the bronze Carrington Statue outside the New Plymouth Courthouse 17th February 2017 photo / vivian Hutchinson

In 1860, Octavius Carrington had been appointed the Provincial Surveyor for Taranaki, and it was in this role that he led a team of workers out to Waitara to measure up the disputed Pekapeka Block, in preparation for its sale.

The Te Atiawa leader Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitaake had made it clear to both Carrington and to the chief land purchase commissioner, Donald McLean, that he would not permit their survey or their occupation of the land.

Te Rangitaake sent out groups of Te Atiawa women to disrupt the survey teams and pull up the survey pegs that had been left in the ground.

Cliff Whiting, from Bitter Payment:The Taranaki Troubles by Michael Keith (1978) NZ School Journal

This was one of the acts of “rebellion” that led to the first shots being fired at Te Kohia Pa a few days later, and the commencement of the Taranaki Wars.

Cliff Whiting had memorialised this resistance in his 1978 illustration of the Atiawa women pulling up survey pegs that had pierced a living earth. He pictured the women chasing off Carrington and his survey team from the Pekapeka Block.

It was the descendants of those Atiawa women who had pulled up the pegs, who were now gathered outside the New Plymouth courthouse in the rain.

It is not their view that what took place 157 years beforehand was an act of “rebellion”. They now describe it as the first steps in a much longer passive resistance movement against the theft of Maori land. And it was this resistance that had immediately led to Te Pahua Tuatahi – Te Pahua o Whaitara – the plunder of Waitara.

But in 2017, the women and their children and friends had come to the Carrington statue with their own wooden pegs. These had been created by local artist Moewai Aterea, and had been inscribed with the names of Taranaki hapu and the Taranaki iwi and community organisations that had been supporting their kaupapa.

After a karakia, or blessing, Moewai Aterea chose a wooden stake on which she had inscribed “Return 2 Sender”. She deliberately hammered it into the ground before the statue of Frederic Alonzo Carrington, while chanting

E tu nga wahine o te wa o te kore
E tu nga wahine o Te Atiawa
E tu nga wahine o Te Pekapeka
E tu nga mokopuna o naianei
E tu, E tu, E tu

We have brought our own pegs ... photo/Robin Martin RNZ

11.

Surveying is both the functional and the symbolic act of dominance that is the consummation of colonisation.

Surveying is an act of framing, and of extraction, and of commodification. It reduces the living, the messy and the grab ... into a tidy representation that is ripe for transaction and for sale.

It is no great mistake that “the Father of New Plymouth” was not a significant statesman, or spiritual figure, or a visionary with a poetic sense of what this new nation could become. No, he was the man who measured up the maps.

In choosing the Cliff Whiting illustration to be the symbol of their Peace for Pekapeka hikoi in September 2016, the Taranaki Maori Women’s network were trying to symbolise “pulling up the pegs” on the proposed Waitara Lands legislation ... and from any such maps that would lead to the final alienation of these lands from their original and proper owners.

As we mark the Second Reading of the Waitara Lands Bill, this might be a good time for all of us to reflect on what has taken place so far.

While the Waitara hapu make their own deliberations on the legislation ... we might like to reflect on the proclamations by the local Mayor and MP that the latest Select Committee report amounts to an “Historic Day for New Zealand”.

We may even begin to recognise that the Waitara hapu are a group of people that might have their own idea of what “historic” would look like to them.

And we could even realise that it would be worth everyone’s while if Manukorihi and Otaraua were able to fully make that case.

vivian Hutchinson
August 2017

Notes and Links

The Peace for Pekapeka website of the latest news and media about the Waitara Lands Bill is at http://www.taranaki.gen.nz/pekapeka

Peace for Pekapeka is an initiative organised by the Taranaki Maori Women's Network and supported by Te Roopu Kaumatua o Whai Tara, Peaceful Province Initiative and Community Taranaki.

opening whakatauki taken from “Te Reo Hāpai – the Language of Enrichment” by Keri Opai (2017) published by Te Pou o te Whakaaro Nui download from www.tepou.co.nz/resources/te-reo-hapai---the-language-of-enrichment/809<

Jonathan Young’s iPad in Parliament ... photo from Jonathan Young Facebook page 2nd August 2017 at www.facebook.com/MPJonathanYoung/posts/2018026105126370

Press Release “Historic Day for New Zealand” ... from New Plymouth District Council Website at www.newplymouthnz.com/Council/Council-Documents/News-and-Notices/2017/08/02/Historic-Day-for-New-Zealand-Maori-Affairs-Committee-Recommends-NPDCs-Waitara-Lands-Bill-Be-Approved

The New Plymouth District Council (Waitara Lands) Bill Parliamentary page is at www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/00DBHOH_BILL69946_1/new-plymouth-district-council-waitara-lands-bill

Report of the Maori Affairs Committee, New Zealand Parliament, and copy of the new version of the New Plymouth District Council (Waitara Lands) Bill 2nd August 2017
"... We note that there are ongoing discussions between the Waitara hapū, the Trust, and our advisers. The Waitara hapū are yet to finalise their position, but support the bill to the second reading." www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/SCR_74760/e12facfba71f0fe00d9c826defbe7a14a4552760

The Waitara Lands Bill in Parliament (a Directory by the Peace for Pekapeka campaign) www.taranaki.gen.nz/waitaraparliament

Whina Cooper and the 1975 Maori Land March on Parliament ... see full-length documentary at www.nzonscreen.com/title/te-matakite-o-aotearoa-1975

1863 Governor Sir George Grey decision on the Waitara Lands ... see 1863 Despatches from Governor Sir George Grey dated from November 1863 to March 1864 to the Duke of Newcastle declaring the abandonment of the Waitara purchase" paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/parliamentary/AJHR1863-I.2.1.6.3

1927 Sim Royal Commission into Confiscated Lands and other Grievances report can be read at atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&d=AJHR1928-I.2.2.6.13&e=-------10--1------0

1996 Waitangi Tribunal report – Te Kaupapa Tuatahi Wai 143 available at forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_DOC_68453721/Taranaki%201996.compressed.pdf

Native Affairs - Selling off Waitara (7 mins) by Iulia Leilua, Native Affairs (Maori Television) 20th September 2016 The New Plymouth District Council is being accused by some Waitara Māori of selling off stolen land through the Waitara Lands Bill. Interviews with Dr Leonie Pihama and former NPDC councillor Howie Tamati. www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/native-affairs-selling-waitara

Cliff Whiting (1936-2017) was a Master Carver and a leader of the Maori artistic renaissance as an influential sculptor, painter, illustrator, printmaker and photographer. He was central to designing and creating the contemporary marae on the top floor of Te Papa. He was also a Member of the Order of New Zealand, the highest New Zealand honour. Cliff Whiting profile on Waka Huia (2015) www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB5LK4nJOnY

Cliff Whiting’s illustrations were made available courtesy of the artist to the Taranaki Maori Women’s Network for use in the Waitara Lands campaign. They are taken from “Bitter Payment: The Taranaki Troubles”, by Michael Keith, New Zealand School Journal, Part 4, Nos 1 & 2, 1978 (Ministry of Education)

Billboard on Devon Street, New Plymouth. See “Waitara land bill controversy posted up in city's main street” by Tara Shaskey, Taranaki Daily News 14 July 2017 www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/94726077/waitara-land-bill-controversy-posted-up-in-citys-main-street

black-and-white photographs of the Waitara Peace for Pekapeka hikoi taken by Jane Dove Juneau 21 September 2016. Her full album is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1121891231212252&id=165228956878489

money speaks loudly ... and there is another amount of money that is perhaps not speaking loud enough in this whole debate. This is the amount of money that the Crown and the various Councils have continued to extract from leases and sales of the Waitara Lands over the last 150 years. It has never been officially counted. So in a context where everyone agrees this is stolen property, the officials do not seem to be able to tell us how much money they have made from these assets since they were confiscated.

The Tamaki Treaty Workers network in Auckland have done some research on this in 2017. They have estimated that the councils have pocketed between $95m and $140m, excluding interest and any money from land sales.

“Council earned $140m from stolen land - Treaty Workers “ by Robin Martin, Radio New Zealand News Te Ao Maori 4th May 2017 www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/330067/council-earned-%24140m-from-stolen-land-treaty-group Interview with Carl Chenery and Rawiri Doorbar www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201842582/council's-earnings-from-waitara-land-bone-of-contention

Jonathan Young interviewed by Bryan Vickery on Hokonui Radio 4th August 2017, from from Morris West / Facebook www.facebook.com/morris.west.965/videos/vb.731938277/10155662939668278

Mayor Neil Holdom and Hapu Chairman Rawiri Doorbar on Waatea Radio
“Waitara Bill change needs hapu debate” (audio) Rawiri Doorbar interviewed on Radio Waatea by Dale Husband 3rd August 2017 www.waateanews.com/waateanews/x_story_id/MTY5MTA=/Waitara-Bill-change-needs-hapu-debate
“Waitara Bill sweetened for hapu” (audio) Mayor Neil Holdom interviewed on Radio Waatea by Dale Husband 3rd August 2017 www.waateanews.com/waateanews/x_story_id/MTY5MDk=/National/Waitara%20Bill%20sweetened%20for%20hapu

“Hapū support for revised Waitara land bill conditional” by Robin Martin, Radio New Zealand News 3rd August 2017 www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/336389/hapu-support-for-revised-waitara-land-bill-conditional
Otaraua hapū chairman Rawiri Doorbar said Waitara hapu considered the revised version a fresh start, but there was more consultation to be done. "The timeframe we were given hasn't allowed us to take the complete revised Bill out to our people, so ultimately the jury is still out on whether this is a Bill our people can live with."
Manukorihi hapū chairperson Patsy Bodger said any decision that resulted in the land not being returned to Waitara hapu would be difficult for some members to stomach. "It will be a huge discussion point with some of our hapu members because it's always been seen that what they wanted was to have the land back."

“Maori Affairs Select Committee recommend Waitara Land Bill be approved” by Tara Shaskey, Taranaki Daily News 3rd August 2017 www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/95367783/maori-affairs-select-committee-recommend-waitara-land-bill-be-approved

“Waitara Lands Bill passes second reading, moves into committee stage” by David Burroughs, Taranaki Daily News 10th August 2017 www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/95621096/waitara-lands-bill-passes-second-reading-moves-into-committee-stage

Waitara Lands Bill numbers (graphic) from Jonathan Young Facebook Page 9th August 2017 https://www.facebook.com/MPJonathanYoung/posts/2022001121395535

Kelvin Davis speech during the Second Reading of the NPDC (Waitara Lands) Bill, Parliament 9th August 2017 https://youtu.be/7UbVMs1PUEU

Peter Moeahu submission to the Maori Affairs Select Committee 1st October 2016 www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/51SCMA_EVI_00DBHOH_BILL69946_1_A536216/8fd0a31e6774b8dc3e928f4c6692b4c9b0630576

Ngaropi Cameron oral submission to the Maori Affairs Select Committee 18th November 2016 www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/51SCMA_EVI_00DBHOH_BILL69946_1_A542501/21fa83a55ef7fb0e375777446636bb19e7500349

Waitara – one of Taranaki’s lowest socio-economic communities ... see presentation on poverty in Taranaki and New Zealand by Local Pediatrician Dr Nicky Nelson (given at the
Tick 4 Kids Election Forum at the Plymouth Hotel August 2017) https://youtu.be/dcwdNGaVIcA

historical trauma ... see "Stolen Land and Healing Historic Trauma" by Awhina Cameron, from her opening korero at the Spring Taranaki Community Circle at the NPDC Council Chambers, 7th September 2016 drive.google.com/open?id=0B7p1jVWu6lEXNHRxeVc3amg3OVk

Moewai Aterea chant may be interpreted as ... Stand up women from the times of nothing / Stand up women of Te Atiawa / Stand up women of the Pekapeka / Stand up descendants of today / Stand up, Stand up, Stand up.

Other articles by vivian Hutchinson on the Waitara Lands dispute include “Watching the Seabirds at Waitara — we need a new conversation about a very old land grab” (2016) www.taranaki.gen.nz/watching-the-seabirds-at-waitara and “How to Explain Waitara to your Pakeha Friends and Relations” (2017) www.taranaki.gen.nz/how-to-explain-waitara

This paper is licensed for distribution under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/nz/deed.en

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