Iwi lost spiritual connection to its whenua after land confiscation
Tuesday, 13 April 2021
A spiritual connection with the land was broken for a Manawatū iwi after it lost land to the Crown in the 19th century, a Waitangi Tribunal has heard.
Members of iwi Ngāti Te Au spoke about their loss of land at a Waitangi Tribunal hearing, the Manawatū ki Porirua inquiry, at Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom in Foxton on Tuesday.
This week of hearings, the fifth of 12, concerns the area around Foxton, but is part of the Ngati Raukawa iwi confederations treaty claim on the historical purchase of about 130,000 hectares of land between Manawatū and Kāpiti. Raukawa claims the area was not bought legitimately, but confiscated by the pen.
Hayley Bell and her family gave evidence, and she spoke about how hapū from Himatangi had been determined to keep their land, despite pressure from the Crown to sell.
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About 9000 hectares were taken from the iwi and only half was returned. The iwi’s traditional way of life was undermined with waterways drained or polluted, and food sources depleted.
Bell said their land was “fragmented into small blocks not even big enough to put a house on” and the loss of land disintegrated the iwi's spiritual connection to its whenua.
“They prohibited us from living on the land. [Now] there are issues with drainage and pollution of the awa.
“Flora and fauna have been stripped and the whenua no longer resembles what it was.”
The desire not to sell their land had continued through the generations and the iwi wanted rangatiratanga, self-determination, over the land.
Bell’s nephew Anton Davis used a korowai, cloak, as an example of what had happened to the hapū.
He said his ancestors had woven a korowai, but by the 1860s it had become frayed and badly damaged due to the Crown’s actions.
The loss of land affected the iwi economically, socially and culturally.
“We've had our health and well-being suppressed as a result. The damage that has been done is so extensive the remnants of the korowai are unrecognisable.
“We continue to endure. Still here. We’re looking to restore the hapū so it's dynamic, vibrant and fully functional.”
He believed if the hapū hadn’t been fragmented, they may not have allowed the land to be split up.
He said since the 1840s, the Crown had undermined iwi relationships with the environment, failed to ensure the possession of land, waterways and taonga, and failed to treat Māori as partners.
Ngāti Te Au built its marae in the 1890s and it was their home until the 1960s, but people started to leave the area looking for employment or because they were pressured to follow English values.
No-one lived at the whare, which deteriorated and fell down in the 1960s.
The iwi have to hold tangi at a neighbouring marae, while their urupā is hard to access off State Highway 1.
Bell’s son Reihana Adlam said their whare needed to return to Himatangi and a new whare would help the hapū reconnect.
Judge Caren Fox said: “Wherever you put up the house you’ll still carry the mana of the whenua.”