Te reo in submissions ‘highly offensive’
Race-based bias in the community was felt at all levels, from the rental market to the misuse of Māori language and concepts in submissions to the planchange hearing, iwi representatives say.
In his closing statement to the hearing panel, Ngāti Koata Ltd chief executive Hemi Toia said Ngāti Koata kaumātua found the cultural appropriation of te reo Māori words, songs, and practices by submitters opposed to development in Kākā valley ‘‘highly offensive to Ngāti Koata’’.
‘‘Ngāti Koata kaumātua noted the abundant use of te reo Māori of many submitters against this private plan change,’’ he said. ‘‘While the liberal use of te reo Māori is appreciated, Ngāti Koata expressed great dismay in the way it was used and the context. In the expert view of Ngāti Koata kaumātua this cultural appropriation of our language, songs and practices was not appropriate and was in reality highly offensive to Ngāti Koata.’’
He also noted a ‘‘very common theme’’ which he summarised as: ‘‘We want to walk and/or drive our car into the Maitai valley and enjoy the recreational opportunities and make as much joyful noise as we like, but we don’t want new families driving into their new homes in Kākā valley and creating noise pollution with lawnmowers and leaf-blowers’’.
‘‘This privilege and hypocrisy is polluting,’’ he said.
He said many submitters had announced ‘‘with pride’’ that they lived in the Maitai Valley, but were now denying that privilege to others.
Te Tiriti and historical context
Toia emphasised the historic context of the Crown apology for not ensuring Ngāti Koata retained enough land for its ‘‘future needs’’.
‘‘Access to land is the key to Ngāti Koata’s housing strategy,’’ he said.
‘‘That future is now. Yes, intensification is an option for increasing housing supply. But it is not a solution for Ngāti Koata housing needs.’’
He said there had been a ‘‘great deal’’ heard of the recent European history of the river, while the Māori history had been ‘‘conveniently ignored’’, along with the fact that ‘‘hundreds of hectares’’ of the recreational land in the upper Maitai was owned by Ngāti Koata, which currently granted free access for public recreation.
‘‘Kākā Valley, however, is privately owned land and is not accessible for recreation purposes. This private plan change could change that . . . just like your piece of land, your beautiful green backyard is not my park, Kākā Valley is not your park. Access to and use of what is correctly called your park, land owned by Nelson City Council, will not change.
‘‘I do acknowledge that having a beautiful green area to enjoy quiet and peaceful recreation is good for one’s health and wellbeing. But I am of a stronger opinion that having a home to live in and an area to recreate and relax in is even more important for one’s health and wellbeing.’’
Iwi representatives submitting to the hearing on its third day outlined the iwi’s history and connection to the land, and the meaning of the potential development to them.
Matt Hippolite said due to significant past alienation from their lands, Ngāti Koata people wanted to ‘‘pursue opportunities that will improve the wellbeing of whānau by creating pathways to affordable home-ownership in areas where they have significant connection’’.
‘‘The proposed Kākā Hill vision seeks to deliver on these intentions,’’ he said ‘‘Kaitiakitanga cannot be practised from afar. You need to be able to connect with the area both physically and spiritually,’’ he said.
‘‘Our lost taonga treasures have been enjoyed by all . . . We ask the community to recognise these significant contributions, and the impacts it has had on the wellbeing of our whānau.’’
Biased rental market
Submitter Kimiora McGregor, who has whakapapa to seven of the eight Te Tauihu iwi, submitted to the hearing about her struggle in the ‘‘biased’’ rental market in Nelson.
‘‘My experience with renting over the past six years in Nelson has been extremely stressful, the rental market is insanely competitive and biased in Nelson,’’ she said. ‘‘Not one of the property management companies that I applied for rentals with between 2016 and 2021 did a single reference check. I know this because I checked in with my references each time I applied for a place.
‘‘Unfortunately a Māori family with five kids – three kids under five – even with long term secure employment, good income, good credit, excellent employment and tenancy references and actively involved in their community, were not worth a reference check for more than 100 rentals over a six-year period.’’
She said families like hers needed housing, and there was a great need for equitable opportunities for stable and secure housing. ‘‘I hadn’t really given much thought to homeownership before 2016, but my experience with the Nelson rental market has led me to conclude it’s the only way to provide my children with genuinely secure housing, thus home-ownership is the goal.’’
She said she had visited the proposed location and found it ‘‘beautiful, spacious, bright [and] sunny’’, and she hoped the vision of the development team was realised.
‘‘Maitahi village would help to alleviate the housing crisis in Nelson. Maitahi village would give people like me, and families like mine, a genuine and realistic pathway to homeownership.
‘‘The opportunity for my children and I to have a warm, dry, stable and secure home that we own on ancestral land, and a community environment would be an investment in our present and our future, and would do the same for others like us.’’