The call is out for people to be the human representation of Taranaki Maunga and his companion peaks.
The Department of Conservation has opened nominations to Te Tōpuni Kōkōrangi, a new body to look after the mountains.
The Crown agreed two years ago to formally give up ownership of Taranaki Maunga and share management of the national park with the region’s eight iwi.
DOC will select four members for the Crown, who will sit with four members chosen by iwi.
The department’s advertisement says “the purpose of Te Tōpuni Kōkōrangi is to be the human face and voice of Te Kāhui Tupua / Taranaki Maunga.”
“We are seeking nominations from those with knowledge in strategic and governance leadership, mātauranga Māori, environmental management, stakeholder management, finance, local government, nature conservation, earth sciences, recreation, tourism and the local community.
The Department is also seeking conservation board members across the country, including 3 for Taranaki Whanganui.
Te Tōpuni Kōkōrangi is set up under Te Pire Whakatupua mō te Kāhui Maunga - the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill.
The Bill becomes law after the second and third readings at Parliament on January 30, officially recognising the peaks as ancestral mountains.
They jointly become a legal person called Te Kāhui Tupua, which will own itself, and the park will be renamed Te Papa-Kura o Taranaki.
Te Tōpuni Kōkōrangi is to act in the best interest of Te Kāhui Tupua: nominations are open until February 12, with the conservation board nominations closing on January 31.
The law fulfils the redress agreement for the confiscation of Taranaki Maunga – Te Ruruku Pūtakerongo.
When then-Treaty Settlements minister Andrew Little signed Te Ruruku Pūtakerongo he said values reflecting the cultural, spiritual, ancestral and historical relationships between iwi and Te Kāhui Tupua would be set in law.
Although the Department of Conservation would retain day-to-day management, “everything that happens within Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki will be guided by these values,” said Little.
Management plans will need approval from both the conservation minister and Te Tōpuni Ngārahu, another group with a representatives from each iwi.
Lead negotiator Jamie Tuuta said Te Ruruku Pūtakerongo meant “weaving a foundation for reconciliation.”
“It is more than just the recognition of our tupuna maunga and the recognition of our iwi, but… how we might build a platform of reconciliation for this generation and the generations to come.”
Tuuta said tūpuna had tried everything from armed conflict to non-violent action, from petitions to negotiations.
At the request of iwi, the Crown’s apology for taking the maunga will be given at some future date.
But Little already admitted the Crown caused “immeasurable harm over many decades to ngā iwi o Taranaki and to your tūpuna” by its “grave failures” to uphold the Treaty of Waitangi.
The Crown broke a promise to return some of confiscated land and instead created a forest reserve, then the national park, and “banned practices that the tangata whenua of Taranaki had carried out for centuries including resource-gathering and the interment of the dead”.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
