Hapu¯ crowdfunding bid to buy back ancestral land
A group crowdfunding on behalf of Nga¯ ti Kahukuraawhitia people to buy a block of land in the foothills of the Tararua Range has put in a tender.
The initiative was being led by Joel Nga¯ tuere and Amber Craig, who were making a joint bid on behalf of their hapu¯ .
They put a blue sky goal of $500,000 as a fundraising target when they launched their online bid on April 8, but had no idea how much money would come in.
As of yesterday afternoon the Givealittle page had raised close to $170,000 in pledges.
The fundraisers said another $100,000-plus had been directly donated into a private bank account.
Nga¯ tuere said with the help of the donations they had managed to come up with the necessary finances to put a tender in, but for confidentiality reasons would not stipulate the sum.
The 182-hectare block on the western side of the Wairarapa Valley between Carterton and Greytown was estimated to be worth around $1.3 million and the group wanted to bring it back in Nga¯ti Kahukuraawhitia hapu¯ hands.
Nga¯ tuere said they were hopeful their tender might be chosen by the vendor.
‘‘It has so much potential for the hapu¯ , but we respect the rights of the owner, whoever they choose.’’
The hapu¯ extended up to the Waipoua near Masterton and down towards Martinborough and considered this area to be their ancestral land.
Nga¯tuere said they were blown away by the community support for their bid.
‘‘We’ll be forever grateful that people have decided to jump on and come on the journey with us.’’
The Dominion Post attempted to contact the vendor through the property marketing agency PGG Wrightson Real Estate on Tuesday afternoon, but they had withdrawn the listing from public view and would not comment on whether any tenders had been received.
The deadline for tenders was 4pm on Tuesday and there was a five-day period for the tenders to be considered.
If the Nga¯ ti Kahukuraawhitia tender bid was unsuccessful, all donations would be put into a trust which would be used to buy another parcel of land at a later date.
Craig, who was taking joint responsibility for the bid, said the money would be used to benefit all ‘‘Kahukuraawhitia wha¯ nau’’.
‘‘We don’t speak for all of Kahukuraawhitia because within us we have diversity and differing opinions and views, but this is a few of us that have pulled together and said ‘let’s try and seize this opportunity’.’’
It was proposed that any purchased land could be used for papaka¯inga (housing) and sustainable businesses.
Craig said because their wider iwi had not settled their treaty negotiations, they as a hapu¯ wanted to act now because land purchase opportunities were limited.
‘‘Let’s be real, our treaty settlements take a long time to negotiate and organise.’’
‘‘It has so much potential for the hapu¯ . . .’’ Joel Nga¯ tuere