Call for special Te Mata Peak status
A cultural report on Te Mata Peak has recommended that several parts of it be closed to public access and that an application be made to consider the peak a legal entity with the equivalent status of a person.
The report was prepared for the Hastings District Council by local iwi organisation Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga.
It was commissioned after concerns around protections on the peak came to light when a track was cut up the peak’s east face by Craggy Range winery late last year.
The 99-page document traverses local iwi and hapu connections to the sacred peak, or maunga tapu, and calls for ‘‘the use of every available planning, policy and community contribution to assist local Ma¯ ori communities to reclaim, reframe and reinstate the mana and mauri of wha¯ nau Ma¯ ori’’.
For 800 to 1000 years, local hapu have identified with the 399-metre peak and its surrounds, which the report says are ‘‘imbued with strong cultural significance that needs to be respected, protected, and considered whenever any activities are proposed that have actual or potential (adverse) effects on this taonga’’. ‘‘Its soils contain the blood of our tı¯puna (ancestors) and taonga (cultural artefacts) that constitute a vitally important cultural heritage for the marae hapu¯ of Heretaunga,’’ it says. The report makes a raft of recommendations, starting with removing the Craggy Range track up the eastern face, which is under way.
It also recommended that an application be made to give the peak full recognition as a legal entity equivalent to a legal person ‘‘that recognises the full status conferred on this cultural landscape by the marae hapu¯ of Heretaunga as a ‘tı¯puna’ (ancestors)’’. This would give it similar status to the Whanganui River, which was given the rights of a legal person under Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act last year.
It recommended the placement of cultural markers, ‘‘pou’’, on the ridgeline and faces of the peak, to reinstate te reo Ma¯ ori place names and remove ‘‘existing place and feature names that are not part of the whakapapa of this tı¯puna’’. The report calls for statutory recognition of eight specific wa¯ hi tapu sites on the peak that will ideally be prohibited to the public, and 17 wa¯ hi taonga zones where public access may be permissible, but which should be fenced off from stock.
It also recommends: An extension of the existing building restriction on the peak to provide increased level of protection from subdivision, use and development.
A study be undertaken to make a case for classifying the peak as a site of national significance and a world heritage status.
The establishment of a comanagement and co-governance arrangement with the council including a right as Tangata Whenua to sit on any governing boards that contribute to management activities on the peak.
Places be set aside for cultural practices (for example, sun and wind cleansing, wa¯ nanga, karakia, water available for removing tapu and so on).
Council spokeswoman Jane Mackay said: ‘‘This report, along with a number of others, forms the research undertaken and not yet completed by the [Te Mata] project group’’.
The report would ‘‘contribute towards informing council of the way forward for the eastern escarpment as well as informing any changes for the district plan’’, Mackay said.
Last week it was revealed that Hastings ratepayers would end up paying $650,000 to remediate the track after the council decided to spend about $200,000 to
‘‘Its soils contain the blood of our t¯ıpuna (ancestors) and taonga (cultural artefacts) that constitute a vitally important cultural heritage for the marae hapu¯ of Heretaunga.’’
Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga report on Te Mata Peak remediate the remaining 1700 metres of the 2.2-kilometre track.
The council has already spent $62,000 filling in the top 500 metres of the track, after it was deemed to be unsafe.
Excluding these costs, the total cost of the remediation project to date for the council is estimated at $450,000.
About $360,000 of that included research, including the cultural report.
Whether an alternative track up the eastern side of Te Mata comes to fruition remains to be seen.
A Te Mata Project team consisting of external consultants, mana whenua representatives and council officers, was looking at various options.
Chair of the local iwi, Ngati Kahungunu, Ngahiwi Tomoana has said the iwi’s plan to purchase the land with the winery, announced in May, was unchanged.