Tūrangi change a ‘win-win’
A landmark agreement between the original guardians of the land under the township of Tūrangi and Taupō District Council is less than a week away.
The Mana Whakahono partnership agreement is between the council and Ngāti Tuwharetoa hapū Ngāti Tūrangitukua, and the final draft will be presented to councillors at a meeting next week. It follows several years of negotiation and close collaboration between the council and Ngāti Tūrangitukua, who are landowners of most of the reserves in Tūrangi, the township itself, and surrounding land.
The new co-governance framework will enable Ngāti Tūrangitukua to make joint decisions alongside council on matters that affect their land and whānau for the benefit of the wider community.
A co-governance committee made up of Ngāti Tūrangitukua and council appointees will be set up as the governing body to build on the existing working partnership between the two entities and will cover community planning and co-design of community projects, facilities, and sustainable community outcomes.
Council chief executive Gareth Green said some recent examples of co-operation between the council and Ngāti Tūrangitukua included initiatives to create a new destination playground at Te Kapua Park and to build a multimillion-dollar community sports facility at Tūrangitukua Park, with construction set to begin on both projects later this year.
Green said the large amount of work put in by staff from both parties to come up with the agreement was impressive: ‘‘This mahi provides a strong and enduring framework to move our relationship into an exciting new phase which should be a win-win for all our community.’’
Tina Porou led the Mana Whakahono development team for Ngāti Tūrangitukua and said the partnership had been more than 50 years in the making ‘‘ ... with the work of our kaumātua and kuia bearing fruit in this generation’s opportunity to give effect to their aspirations’’.
‘‘Having co-governance is an important step in creating the town and the country we want, one where our shared vision for our community comes equally from both tangata whenua and tangata tiriti,’’ Porou said.
‘‘We are excited that our council has taken this path with us, and has committed to be part of a new stage of our shared evolution, together.’’
Ngāti Tūrangitukua has been on a journey of reconciliation since the 1960s, when the Crown took their lands against their will and desecrated their wāhi tapu (sacred spaces, including burial grounds) for the construction of the Tongariro hydropower scheme and the Tūrangi township.
Green said the partnership agreement expanded beyond the mandatory Mana Whakahono ā Rohe provisions provided for under the Resource Management Act into a contemporary and comprehensive partnership agreement that also covered the Local Government Act and Reserve Act matters.
The Mana Whakahono agreement goes to council for consideration on Tuesday, from 1pm.
The meeting will be held online and livestreamed on the Taupō District Council’s YouTube channel.