WEBINAR: The Struggle for Ihumātao

🌱 Kaikōrero / Speakers: Pania Newton
🌱 Ringa hāpai / Chair: Teah Carlson

🔥 Webinar format: Fireside Chat

Ihumātao is a rare cultural, historical, and ancestral landscape on the shores of the Manukau Harbour.

Recently the NZ government supported the plans of transnational corporation Fletcher Residential Ltd to build high - priced dwellings on confiscated land at Ihumātao, South Auckland. The Government used the discriminatory provisions of the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Act 2013 to establish Special Housing Area 62 (SHA62) on this land.

Despite the strenuous opposition of mana whenua (those with customary authority), descendants of the colonist landowners have used the profoundly pro-development provisions of the Act to have the land designated for urban development. The purpose of the Act was to fast track land developments for building houses, minimising the rights of indigenous peoples to object, negotiate or disrupt any development proposed under its provisions.

The repeated failures of bureaucratic and political authorities to acknowledge the issues at Ihumātao have left mana whenua with no other option but to resist and oppose the development through peaceful, non - violent, and direct action till all legal and political means available are exhausted.

★ PANIA NEWTON ​★
Ngāpuhi, Waikato, Ngāti Mahuta & Ngāti Maniapoto

In 2015 Pania graduated from the University of Auckland with a Degree in Law and Health Sciences. Pania also holds qualifications from Te Awanuiarangi and Te Wananga o Aotearoa in the areas of Maori Food Sovereignty Practices and Performing Arts.

After graduating University Pania and her cousins established the Save Our Unique Landscape Campaign.

Other work Pania has been involved with includes being part of Matike Mai Aotearoa Rangatahi the youth arm working towards Constitutional Transformation. Pania is also a board member and trustee on several trusts that seek to empower communities to lead healthy lifestyles that enable their well-being, these include Toi Tangata, Ki o Rahi ki Tamaki Makaurau, Nga Kaitiaki o Ihumatao, and Puketapapa Ascendants.

On the day, go to: https://zoom.us/j/602428037