The second phase of the Marine and Coastal Applications is nearing a close as groups with interests in the Whangārei coastline take a seat in the High Court to be heard.
In February, Justice Layne Harvey heard stage 1A from multiple parties with interests in the Whangārei Harbour seeking to be named on any customary orders, which includes the requirement to be consulted on developments to the harbour.
The hearings lasted 10 weeks and involved 16 groups, including Ngāti Wai, Patuharakeke, Te Parawhau, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Pūkenga, Te Wairāriki, Ngāti Kororā and Ngāti Takapari, along with many smaller whānau groups.
In August, stage 1B of the hearings began, addressing the Whangārei coastline from Bream Tail, just before Mangawhai, to Bream Head before Ocean Beach. The area of interest also stretches out to include Marotere and Taranga Islands, known as the Hen and Chicks.
The Marine and Coastal Area Act (Maca) was passed under John Key’s National Government in 2011 in response to Labour’s controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act of 2004.
The Maca aims to provide recognition of Māori customary rights in parts of the marine and coastal area that aren’t already in private ownership or part of a conservation area.
When passed, one of the criteria to qualify for a customary title was the ability of a group to prove they had been exclusively using and occupying the area since 1840 without substantial interruption.
However, in 2023 the Court of Appeal made a ruling that changed the nature of the test and materially reduced the threshold, a test the current Government disagrees with and plans to reinstate.
Drafting of the bill is under way and under the Government’s current timetable, approval from Cabinet for the amendment will be sought this month
If enacted, Maca judgments made after July 2024 will be overturned. There are currently multiple hearings and draft orders being written up across the country.
Last week, Patuharakeke, the dominant hapū across Bream Bay, gave opening statements through their lawyer Kelly Dixon and witnesses Juliane Chetham and Harry Maki Midwood.
Midwood referred to a whakatauki or proverb the hapu had reclaimed in their bid for customary titles – Me tangoake i te tai – to be taken up by the sea or reclaimed from the sea.
“It is a phrase I coined for this process for Patuharakeke. Patuharakeke lives on the shores of Bream Bay and Whangārei Harbour. We’ve been here a long time.”
Midwood referred to several significant pā sites stretching from Waipu to the Ruakākā estuary where a freshwater puna (reservoir) continues to be viable to this day.
Midwood recounted stories he was told of when settlers arrived in Waipu and struggled to adjust to the new climate and were on the brink of starvation because their crops, namely potatoes, could not grow.
“We were told once that ‘your people saved us from starvation’ and were told our people would take kai across the beach to assist them in setting up.
“There was an account when the Waipuan settlers suffered a plight on their seed crop, the local chief showed them how to save the seed crop.”
Both Midwood and Chetham acknowledged Patuharakeke was in a complex position being sandwiched between multiple iwi and hapū with family strands that had intermarried but maintained they held a significant interest in Bream Bay.
“There is a long history of co-operation but certainly in the rohe moana, the area put forward for us, we certainly have always led the kaupapa but always called for tautoko from others,” Chetham said.
The hearings being held at the Whangārei Māori Land Court are due to finish on Thursday, September 19.
