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To: Auckland Council; Minister of Conservation, Poto Williams; Minister for the Environment, David Parker

#ProtectPūtiki

We, Uri o Ngāti Pāoa, are currently occupying the beach at Pūtiki Bay (Kennedy Point), Waiheke Island. We are occupying to protect our ancestral moana, Tikapa Moana, by stopping the proposed ‘Kennedy Point Marina’. Many Uri o Ngāti Pāoa (descendants of our iwi) have returned to Waiheke to occupy and have been here since March the 9th, 2021. We are committed to staying indefinitely.

We, the undersigned, support the three asks of Uri o Ngāti Pāoa:

✪ We call on Auckland Council to instigate a review of the resource consent given by Auckland Council for the marina at Kennedy Point/Pūtiki Bay (under s128(1)(c) RMA).

✪ We call on Auckland council, the Minister for the Environment; and Minister for Conservation/Acting Minister of Conservation to mandate a process that will enable all affected parties to come up with an outcome everyone can live with.

✪ We call on the Minister for Conservation/Acting Minister of Conservation; to amend the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 2000 to prohibit any future marinas on Waiheke Island.

⭑⭑⭑
Ko Tikapa te moana. Tikapa is the moana we whakapapa to. We are occupying to protect our whakapapa connections. We are occupying to protect our ancestral moana from a mega-sized marina with unprecedented features, such as New Zealand's first floating car park. We are occupying to further express the battle of the Ngāti Pāoa Trust Board, the Waiheke community and SKP (Save Kennedy Point) who have pursued legal avenues to oppose the marina and protect the environment for 4.5+ years. We are all people living in the environment here in Aotearoa/ New Zealand, and we stand in solidarity under the kaupapa of protecting the moana that nourishes and connects us all.

As Uri/descendants of Paoa, we are whānau and hapū reconnecting with Waiheke Island (Te Motu Arai Roa), with our ancestral stories, with our mātauranga. We are whānau and hapū growing relationships with the Waiheke Community whose ongoing fight for environmental advocacy and protection we admire. We will continue insisting on the protection of the environment we all share. We unanimously ask that these connections and mātauranga are acknowledged and respected through being given the chance to come to light at an environment court.

The RMA (resource management act) provides an opportunity for all Māori to have a voice. The developer says we have had this opportunity. We say that is wrong. If more Uri o Ngāti Pāoa had been allowed a voice in the consideration of this consent, then a fuller picture would have been demonstrated. We ask that an opportunity is granted for this full picture of our mātauranga to be heard.

In 70 days of occupation, a significant amount of Ngāti Pāoa people and their stories have come back to Waiheke. Some have never been here on their ancestral land. Some have been here a few times. Some grew up here. In all cases, we share the desire to reconnect to the places we have been displaced from. The reality of the impacts of colonisation and displacement of our whānau, hapū and iwi has meant that our people, their mātauranga and stories connecting us all to place have become scattered and fragmented. However, the mātauranga still exists and has been resurfacing and regathering during the occupation.

Many people of Ngāti Pāoa are adamant that the proposed marina is a threat to our ancestral moana, a threat to our whakapapa. It is this threat that unifies us with urgency. The return of our people to our ancestral homeland has brought a deeper, richer level of our mātauranga to light. The mauri and mana of our mātauranga which is yet to be heard by the Court has been reinvigorated through the occupation at Pūtiki. There are now many more Uri o Ngāti Pāoa ready to advocate for our rights armed with the ancestral knowledge to advocate for our taiao/ environment. This expression of mātauranga has become possible in our context by having the time to reconnect and regather through the continuing occupation. We are asking that Auckland Council and the Minister respect the realities of colonisation on our people by providing an opportunity for our mātauranga that is now being called back to Pūtiki to be heard.

Why is this important?

When consent to this marina was granted, our stories were excluded. If we are not heard now, developers benefit directly from the displacement of our people, the displacement of our mātauranga and further colonise our environment in the process. Auckland Council and the Crown have a relationship with us under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. They are in a partnership with Ngāti Pāoa as mana whenua. In fact, when our iwi had our treaty settlement at Wharekawa Marae earlier this year, the Crown explicitly recognised the many historical grievances that Ngāti Paoa have endured which have directly caused the fragmentation of our people. As Uri o Ngāti Paoa, we want this recognition to go beyond words by enabling us the right to be heard now that we have begun to regather and heal. The partnership we are in comes with the responsibility for Tiriti partners to recognise and respond to the dynamic contexts and history of different hapū and iwi in a way that is more than just a minimal box-checking consultation process. It is imperative that developers engage in a robust consultation process that enables wider representation from mana whenua. This way, mātauranga which is directly relevant to the consideration of resource consents can be heard.

A Rūnanga cannot speak for all voices of an iwi, for all hapū of that iwi, and for all people who whakapapa to that iwi. Active protection from Tiriti partners requires an inquiry into whether notification and “consultation” has reached those who are affected by a proposal. Through the Ngāti Paoa Iwi Trust, this did not occur. Auckland Council have acknowledged that the legal mandated entity for Ngāti Pāoa at the time (the Ngāti Pāoa Trust Board) and the people of Ngāti Pāoa were not consulted, but the Supreme Court determined that nevertheless, this does not need to be reheard by the environment court. We say that this does not come close to fulfilling Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations and the principle of Active Protection. We say that we need to be heard by the environment court in order for an active relationship and partnership that supports tino rangatiratanga to be upheld.

⭑ Background
Our bay at Pūtiki is under threat from the construction of a 7.3 hectare marina by developers Kennedy Point Boatharbour Limited. Amongst the plans of this marina are 186 berths sized from 10 to 30 metres, two septic tanks for blackwater and greywater sunk into the seabed and Aotearoa New Zealand's first floating car park. Hundreds of steel piles could be drilled into the seabed of the moana here at Pūtiki Bay to float the concrete structures of the marina.

Tikapa Moana is an ancestral taonga for many hapū and iwi, including Ngāti Pāoa. Pūtiki bay is a wāhi taonga, a significant cultural landscape. The bay is the landing site of the ancestral Arawa and Tainui waka. After its great ocean crossing, Te Arawa waka named and journeyed through Tikapa Moana, finally coming into Pūtiki to be relashed. The day of relashing resulted in the awa, wetland, moana and nearby whenua being called ‘Te Rangihoua’ (The Day of Renewal). After exploring Tikapa further, the Arawa journeyed on to Maketu in the Bay of Plenty. Kahumatamomoe, (Son of Tamatekapua, Captain of the Arawa waka) and some of his whānau returned to Rangihoua to settle and named their pā site ‘Te Pūtiki o Kahumatamomoe’ (The Topknot of Kahumatamomoe). The whanga (bay) and moana, they named Pūtiki. More than 65 recognised archeological sites as well as other wāhi tapu surround this bay. Pūtiki Bay is a significant cultural landscape and a visual repository of our taonga, our whakapapa, our history.

Tikapa Moana as a whole is already under threat. In every successive Hauraki Gulf Forum ‘State of the Gulf’ report, Tikapa Moana is found to be suffering continual environmental degradation. The State of the Gulf 2017 report states that the marine environment is seriously depleted and contaminated by developments, such as marinas. Any marina here on Waiheke would continue this destruction of our moana. The State of Our Gulf report 2020 found that many things have been lost or degraded from Tikapa Moana, and it has been progressively reshaped by human activities, often irreversibly. We know this marina would desecrate the cultural landscape of Pūtiki in a way which will be hugely damaging, character changing and irrevocable for Tikapa Moana. It will impact the taonga species that call Tikapa Moana and Pūtiki bay their home, amongst which are kororā (little blue penguins), makō (sharks), aihe (dolphins) and parāoa (whales).

Our growing mātauranga of Pūtiki and connections with this bay are critical as a representation of our relationship as Ngāti Paoa, as Waiheke Islanders, and as people with nature and with our ocean at large. Now and for future generations, urgently encouraging and nurturing relationships of connection with the taiao (environment) are even more critical because this very moana is on the brink of ecological collapse. The proposed marina does not encourage a relationship of nurturing our natural environment, nor connecting with the mātauranga that carries life, culture and history. Instead, it furthers the monopolisation and privatisation of our cultural landscapes and environment. It is urgent that we actively protect and preserve our moana and restore its mauri which is under threat. Protect Pūtiki.

#ProtectPūtiki
@protectputiki
https://www.facebook.com/protectputiki

Putiki Bay, Auckland, New Zealand

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2021-07-08 09:37:50 +1200

20,000 signatures reached

2021-06-13 16:24:17 +1200

10,000 signatures reached

2021-05-31 16:56:43 +1200

5,000 signatures reached

2021-05-25 22:55:09 +1200

1,000 signatures reached

2021-05-21 19:58:43 +1200

500 signatures reached

2021-05-19 22:22:12 +1200

100 signatures reached

2021-05-19 21:06:23 +1200

50 signatures reached

2021-05-19 20:29:37 +1200

25 signatures reached

2021-05-19 20:10:38 +1200

10 signatures reached