Promise to ‘stay forever’ as land sale completed
Ihuma¯ tao – the site of Aotearoa’s oldest settlements which was taken from Ma¯ ori by the Crown in the 1800s – is now back in the hands of the Government, two months after a deal was struck with Fletcher Building.
The purchase of the 33 hectares of freehold land at 545-561 Oruarangi Rd in Ma¯ ngere, South Auckland, was finalised on February 17, a spokesperson from Te Tu¯ a¯ papa Kura Ka¯ inga-Ministry of Housing and Urban Development confirmed.
The Government agreed to the purchase in a historic deal on December 17, which brought an end to an almost fiveyear battle by protesters to stop a housing development by Fletcher Building. The deal was made explicitly outside the Treaty of Waitangi process and the land was purchased with money from the Government’s Land for Housing Programme.
Fletchers Building made a $10.9 million profit from the sale, after purchasing the land for $19m in 2014. The company however recorded a $196m net loss in 2020.
Save Our Unique Landscape (Soul) leader Pania Newton said the campaign group was happy that the Government had followed through with the purchase but they had celebrated this when the deal was announced last year.
Newton and other protesters have been occupying the land for almost five years, after they moved in to stop Fletcher’s development of 480 homes.
She said there was no intention to move from Ihuma¯ tao, and the kaitiaki would remain on the site to protect the whenua.
Their campaign to protect the stolen Ma¯ ori land, close to a heritage site and historic reserve, received support from thousands of Kiwis across the country, she said. ‘‘We will stay forever because this is our whenua, we see ourselves as protectors, to see this through.’’
The area, now centred on the O¯ tuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve, is Auckland’s oldest settlement and contains the country’s oldest stone-walled field systems, burial caves, and the foundations of whare. Ihuma¯ tao now remains in a trust and its future will be for Ma¯ori housing, which will be decided by a Kı¯ngitanga-led process and the mana whenua of the land. The next stage is the establishment of a roopu whakahaere, or steering committee, made up of three ahi ka¯ from the group occupying the land, one from the Kı¯ngitanga and two from the Crown. Auckland Council will provide an observer to support the objectives of the roopu whakahaere.