Hapū hurting from land loss
The loss of land 150 years ago is still causing hurt for hapū inmanawatū.
Hapū spoke at the Waitangi Tribunal at Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom in Foxton yesterday about how the historical loss of land had negative affects for Māori in the area.
The hearing is part of the Manawatū ki Porirua inquiry, which comes under the overall Ngāti Raukawa iwi treaty claim on the historical purchase of about 130,000 hectares of land from Manawatū to Kāpiti.
This week of hearings is about the area around Foxton, Te Awahou, where many of the hapū have submitted evidence about how their people have been affected by the loss of land.
Huataki Whareaitu spoke on behalf of Nga Hapū o Kererū, whose people had previously lived atmatakarapa, the land within the Foxton River Loop.
He said the Crown had taken a path of deception and land alienation towards people in the area.
‘‘We’re like a moth to the light, hoping to get a few crumbs from what was [our] house originally.
‘‘We have to come along like homeless people and search for a meal, beg for a meal.’’
He said the people had lived in the waterways all their lives, but the Crown assumed authority over their waterway.
In 1949 his grandmother moved the family into Foxton because they were pressured to move off the land.
A farm scheme was started on the island and the family were ‘‘in the way’’ so they were ‘‘shuffled off’’.
Despite that the river remained part of their life.
‘‘We fish here, swim, park here, all of our lives, even when the pollution [of the river] changed our lives.’’
He said the hapū didn’t want to be invisible in the history of the Te Awahou block.
Rangi Te Whiu Jury said for the past 180 years Māori had been forced by instruments of colonisation to abandon their identity. He was optimistic about the future and Māori to be able to speak te reo. Lindsay Poutama spoke on behalf of Te Mateawa and Ngāti Tūkorehe about how the land loss had a significant effect on hapū. Poutama said Te Mateawa’s rights in the area were extinguished by deliberate acts of the Crown, who failed to recognise the iwi’s rights to land, causing an acute severance of Māori’s connection to the land.
It had led to identity loss for Ngāti Tukohere, and they were now more protective of their land they were left with.