‘This is who we are’: Marama Royal on hosting Matariki and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei’s astronomical resurgence

Sunday, 5 July 2026

As Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei prepares to host the nation's official Matariki ceremony, chair Marama Royal reflects on Bastion Point, billion-dollar success and the battles that remain.

“For many Māori it was probably the one moment in time that changed their hopes and dreams around having their whenua returned to them,” says Marama Royal of the occupation of Takaparawhau Bastion Point. “It's a certainly a site of significance not only for us but for many other Maori and iwi across the motu.”

Royal was boarding at Queen Victoria school, age 13, when the protest kicked off, but recalls being taken to the grounds in a van by her principal to witness history.

“It was like we were camping and yet our homes were just down the road,” she says. “Uncle Joe [Hawke] used to put us into what he called rat patrols, and we thought it was so much fun having shifts being scouts on lookout.”

And Royal remembers the day a crown representative stood on the back of a truck with a loudhailer telling her whānau they were “trespassing” on their traditional whenua.

“I remember asking, why is he saying that to us? This is our land. It was our playground growing up; our access down to Mission Bay.”

Prime Minister Robert Muldoon had plans to develop the headland into a luxury subdivision, “for the people that could afford them”.

For Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei it was the continuation of generations of alienation from their home, with the hapū still embittered after the Crown razed its waterfront pa in 1952 in preparation for Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Tamaki Drive.

“They saw it as an eyesore, so they burnt it down to the ground and basically dispersed us,” says Royal.

“But it really was Takaparawhau, the occupation [in 1977], that saw the rising of the phoenix, as we call it, literally rising from the ashes.”

This month, that same whenua will host on behalf of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage the nation’s official Matariki ceremony for 2026.

According to Māori tradition, the appearance of the Matariki star cluster in the night sky marks the new year and is a time for honouring those that have recently died.

As chair, it’s Royal’s job to read out the names of the deceased before a sacred umu earth oven filled with kai is opened, releasing steam up to the stars in offering.

“It’s all part of that process of putting their names up to Pōhutukawa, the star that takes them and lifts them up into the heavenly,” says Royal. “I can only describe it as magical, the moment you see all this grief lift.”

This year, Royal will be thinking of her cousin, activist Sharon Hawke, who died of breast cancer, age 64, in April.

“She was in the occupation for 506 days, boots and all,” says Royal. The daughter of Joe and Rene Hawke, “she came from a lineage of warriors.”

For whanau, the ceremony is a deeply personal experience, but this year it has been opened to the public, who are invited to call out the names of their own loved ones.

“That's all part of who we are as Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. We take our responsibilities of manaaki and aroha very seriously,” says Royal.

For Royal, the expected thousands gathering at dawn marks a significant “turning of the tide” for a tradition that once came close to disappearing.

“I shouldn’t say amazed, but I’m really happy that New Zealanders, Kiwis have embraced Matariki … It is becoming like Anzac [Day], a very special time of the year.”

“Over the past eight years, we’ve seen the rise of our reo, our waiata, our haka, because we invested in our whānau,” she says.

“When our settlement came in 2012, we knew it as the only way to elevate our ahi kā status.”

With an accumulation of $1.5 billion in assets, the iwi has quietly become one of the most formidable economic forces in the North Island.

Among settlement trusts, its wealth ranks third only behind Ngāi Tahu and Waikato-Tainui, while having a tenth of their membership population.

“When you compare our asset base to our uri, yeah, we are very lucky because we can do so much more in supporting our whānau,” says Royal.

It’s an astronomical rise, especially considering that her iwi doesn’t benefit from “ratchet clauses”, she says.

Ngāi Tahu and Tainui are guaranteed 17% and 16.1% respectively of the total all settlements paid, seeing them continue to be topped up each time another iwi settles with the Crown.

“They had great negotiators,” says Royal.

For Royal, what matters is the opportunities the wealth creates for future generations, with this month seeing the launch of a charter school in the CBD, Te Kura o Ngāti Whātua ki Tāmaki, which Royal hopes will be grown to 100 students.

“We’re really keen for our tamariki to be educated so they can go on to be doctors, astronauts, prime ministers, mayors and great journalists,” she says.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei also has a savings investment scheme which sees annual dividends paid to members invested in a growth fund, backed by the iwi’s real estate arm.

“My mokopuna, who is seven this year, will have enough in there by the time he is 18 to put a deposit down on a home or start a business, or do tertiary education without getting a student loan.”

And for the elderly, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has just obtained fast tracked consent with Generus Living to redevelop the Eastcliffe village into 250 high end apartments for retirees.

The iwi has become a prolific developer with housing sub divisions in Mt Albert, the North Shore and Massey, as well as the Te Tōangaroa commercial precinct in the CBD.

It’s also partnering with Precinct Properties for the $1.5b redevelopment of the Auckland Downtown Carpark site into two new towers with restaurants and apartments.

In the future, Royal says Ngāti Whātua has aspirations for a potential redevelopment of Captain Cook and Marsden wharves, which are ultimately to be purchased from the port by Auckland Council.

With all that success, it’s unsurprising that rangatahi look to Royal and ask how they can achieve the same.

“People often ask me about my qualifications. I have a diploma in being a great wife, a degree in being an awesome mum, a masters in being the best nan and a doctorate in service to my people,” says Royal.

That’s a modest assessment of what was a long career working across the justice system both in the courts and as a victim support person.

One day, while working on the ninth floor of a government services building on Queen Street, Royal heard chanting from the street below.

“There was all my whānau led by Uncle Joe, going down to the Waitangi Tribunal. He was taking a trailer load of blankets, alcohol and cigarettes and saying ‘this is what you gave us for our land, so we’re giving it back’.”

It was a reminder that her work - whether in the criminal justice system, the High Court or the Family Court - “wasn’t just a job”.

“It was about how I could influence and actually support our whānau that are going through the system,” she says.

And that exposure, she says, was basically as good as a law degree, teaching her about how to study and apply legislation.

And while Royal never intended to become trust chair, she felt “pulled in” after a 2006 ruling by Judge Carrie Wainwright declaring that no one iwi could claim primary interest in Auckland's maunga.

'I thought, how can this happen to us? This was not the intent of my great, great, great grandfather Apihai Te Kawau.'

The maunga are central to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei's history. Maungakiekie is regarded as the burial site of tupuna Tūperiri, while Maungawhau was where Te Kawau stood alongside Governor Hobson and gifted the first 3000 acres that would become Auckland.

For Royal, the judgement was a reminder that settlement had not ended the fight for recognition of Ngāti Whātua's place in Tāmaki Makaurau.

“It basically opened up a can of worms. It allowed other iwi in Tāmaki to claim interest in our maunga,” she says.

The ruling eventually led to the creation of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority, which sees Auckland's volcanic cones governed collectively by representatives of 13 iwi and hapū alongside the council.

For much of its existence, the authority has been chaired by Paul Majurey of the Marutūāhu collective of Hauraki tribes.

“We will always have this tension, there's no doubt about it, and it's because we have been in battle and we have been disagreeing for a long time around so many things,” she says.

“Where’s you’re marae? Where’s your urupa? I can’t see anything here. Yes, your waka came up and traded and had a toilet stop, but they got back in the waka and went back.”

“We’ve kept the home fires burning, and that’s our kōrero that they were challenging us on.”

This year, however, Royal was selected by Auckland's hapū to serve as co-chair alongside Majurey - a role she hopes will help reshape the way decisions affecting individual maunga are made. But she is realistic about the challenges.

“I've said to people, this is not a truce. This is a compromise, and I will behave as professionally as I can when I'm in that space, but when I'm out here in protection mode of our settlement and our whenua, that's a different story.”

Royal argues the problem is often compounded by institutional processes that treat iwi and hapū as interchangeable.

That’s why Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has gone to court to seek recognition from Auckland Council of its role as mana whenua on Auckland’s waterfront.

'It's sad, because the last thing you want to do is litigation,' she says.

“For us it was about how do we protect those legacies they left us and how do we continue to put our pou in the ground and say we are the tangata whenua of Tamaki central.”

Royal acknowledges other iwi have “interests” in the area, but says that’s not the same as having “rights”.

Confusion caused by the council’s “blanket” approach to consultation, says Royal, has caused fraught disagreements and public “standoffs” over who has the right to speak at official events and blessings.

“It's not nice when you're having to hold your ground and have hard conversations with your own. A lot of us whakapapa to each other, but you have to say, ‘cuz, this is not your space’.”

And while those disputes continue, for Royal, Matariki is ultimately about new beginnings and putting past grief to rest.

On July 10, nearly half a century after joining the occupation at Takaparawhau Bastion Point, she stands on the same whenua leading the national ceremony.

The theme this year is “Herenga Waka” - a place where waka and people converge.

'People talk about Tāmaki Makaurau as the place of many cousins, loved cousins. It's the bringing together of many people,' says Royal.

And she finds herself extending an invitation to relations and rivals alike: “Nau mai, haere mai. Come and embrace the beauty of Matariki under the korowai aroha of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, absolutely.

“We welcome everyone and anyone to come.”

Matariki Herenga Waka will be broadcast live from Takaparawhau, July 10, 5:55am on Whakaata Māori, TVNZ 1, TVNZ+, Stuff, RNZ, Sky Open.