Protect Pūtiki: Meet the protectors trying to stop a marina on Waiheke

Wednesday, 9 March 2022

It’s a year since Kennedy Point marina construction started and the Protect Pūtiki group was formed. (First published March 9, 2022)

It’s been a year since construction started on the Kennedy Point Marina, drawing concerned locals, environmentalists and tāngata whenua to Waiheke's Pūtiki Bay.

They would come together to form Protect Pūtiki. Here are some of the people behind the movement.

Māia Week (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne, Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tūhoe)

Māia Week thought the marina was a done deal when construction started – but that’s changed.

Māia Week, 30, grew up on Waiheke. Pūtiki Bay was her after-school playground where she would fish or look for crabs. As she grew up, she saw life disappearing from the water, more seabirds washing up dead, beaches so polluted kai moana could no longer be harvested.

When work started on the marina, she was resigned to the fact it would be built.

* Injunction against Kennedy Point protectors ahead of Auckland's eased restrictions

* Anti-marina group demonstrates outside Auckland Council, demands work to stop

Kathryn Ngapo brings a wealth of local history and knowledge to Protect Pūtiki.

“Then I saw the community occupying the beach, the breakwater, swimming in the ocean. I saw people sitting on the rocks and I saw resistance to what I perceived as the physical embodiment of colonialism and entitlement.”

As she engaged more with kaupapa, she went to court hearings, joined the team observing construction, its impact on the wildlife and started helping with social media and interviews.

“I view this marina as a symbol of a callous disregard for the environment, the worsening gentrification of Waiheke Island and a reminder that colonialism still continues.”

Nââwié Tutugoro has lived on Waiheke since childhood and is now part of Protect Pūtiki’s team of observers.

Kathryn Ngapo (Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Awa, Marutūahu)

Kathryn Ngapo was born and bred on Waiheke, living above Pūtiki Bay until 2020.

“I am a whaea of the island, someone with history and involvement here, supporting and upholding the kaupapa of Protect Pūtiki, a kaitiaki for Pūtiki.

“Pūtiki is my tūrangawaewae. It's my responsibility as tangata whenua and as a local Waihekean to be kaitiaki here - a voice for Pūtiki - to be a voice for nature and our beautiful clean waters and to speak up for the cultural landscape of the bay as well as the rights of mana whenua to be consulted concerning what is appropriate for development in this bay.”

For Emily Māia Weiss, protecting Pūtiki is about reconnection to whakapapa.

Ngapo was involved with the fight against the Matiatia marina, was part of SKP (Save Kennedy Point) and wrote the cultural values assessment for the Ngāti Pāoa Trust Board.

Nââwié Tutugoro (Kanaky)

Every Saturday for seven years, Nââwié Tutugoro, 29, would be at Pūtiki Bay as she boarded the SeaLink ferry with her netball team.

“Moving in Pūtiki Bay consistently for seven years, swimming, departing, or waiting to be picked up, all weave into this very real spiritual kinship I feel now in the present being in that space again and protecting every part.

Susi Newborn calls herself a conscientious protector - not a 'protester'.

“My role within Protect Pūtiki has been the assertion of Polynesian Panthers tikanga: Prioritise Tangata Whenua!”

Tutugoro is part of the observation team and a spokeswoman for Protect Pūtiki, as well as taking on organisational and social media responsibilities. She was behind a petition calling for an inquiry into police action at the marina site.

Emily Māia Weiss (Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Whaawhaakia)

Emily Māia Weiss considers herself a “storyteller of Pūtiki Bay”.

Billie Manu Fairchild-Mckelvie was one of the occupiers who camped on a floating pontoon.

“I whakapapa to Waiheke Island. My whānau urupā is here, the stories of my family are here, my journey to reconnect with my taha Māori (Māori side) begins here.

“My main motivation for being at Pūtiki is reconnection to whakapapa and everything this encompasses. This past year, it has meant protecting the places spoken of in my whakapapa (Ko Tikapa te moana; Tikapa is my moana). It has also meant forming deep bonds with the community, the marae and tāngata whenua on the island.

“Connecting with my whakapapa, as many young Maori are in pursuit of, hasn't been easy coupled with criminal charges, trauma from police, developers and more. But my mother named me Māia [brave] for a reason.”

Susi Newborn

Susi Newborn is the co-founder of Greenpeace International, a Rainbow Warrior crewmember and has been involved in the Protect Pūtiki kaupapa since day one. She also fought with SKP and against the Matiatia marina.

She is standing against the destruction of cultural heritage for profit, the privatisation of common areas and the “desecration of a pristine Bay with nearly 40 different species who live there, and a several hundred-year-old pōhutukawa tree.”

Julanne Astarte Luz could face 11 years’ jail time for her part in Protect Pūtiki.

Her motivation is to “support mana whenua and highlight the impact of colonisation”.

“I see myself as a conscientious protector - not a 'protester' - and I know that those of us involved in this kaupapa are standing on the right side of history.”

Billie Manu Fairchild-Mckelvie

Emma Herkt uses her art to represent the biodiversity of the bay.

Billie Manu Fairchild-Mckelvie says defining her role within the kaupapa is impossible.

“Initially I spent time swimming and kayaking in the freezing moana. Then, I lived on the pontoon, which then led to the birth of Camp Kororā, a place I called home until the most recent lockdown.”

After the camp was dismantled in lockdown, she shifted her energy to observations, documenting everything from the developers’ actions to the occasional pods of dolphins.

Mary Walker says protecting the kororā was her first motivation for joining Protect Pūtiki.

“For me, Protect Pūtiki is so much more than stopping this marina from being built, more than the people directly involved, and even more than the bay itself.

“Rather, it is a kaupapa that nourishes and enhances a visionary collective passion for social and environmental change.

“I like to think that the mahi I have contributed to in protecting the bay is simply another expression of my love for this planet; for the land and the seas that so desperately need their human allies to put their human agendas aside for the wellbeing of our planet and our collective future.”

Julanne Astarte Luz

Twenty years ago, Julanne Astarte Luz and her four children moved to Waiheke: “A home, a sanctuary and a place of healing and nurturing.”

She says while she's tangata whenua, she’s still untangling her tribal affiliations: “This loss of identity is another more insidious repercussion of colonialism.”

She has been on the frontline of action, on the water, the breakwater and the pontoon occupation. Behind the scenes, she’s part of events coordination and social media.

Emma Herkt

Emma Herkt, 23, is an artist whose work features on many of the banners seen at Pūtiki Bay.

“I’ve painted many signs and posters that represent the biodiversity of the bay, and have spent the last four months working with protectors to paint a picture book from the perspective of Pūtiki’s beautiful ecosystem.”

Herkt came to Pūtiki in mid-2021 to support friends she had met at Ihumātao. She says spending time occupying at Ihumātao “opened my eyes to the ongoing impacts of colonisation, on indigenous people, on the environment, and therefore upon us all”.

Mary Walker, Ngāpuhi

Mary Walker is a Waiheke local. This is her first real taste of activism and she says the kororā, little blue penguins, were her main motivation.

“I was also triggered by the fence and gate being erected. It felt like generational colonisation. The feeling was that we were locked out while the kororā were locked in.”