Respect our boundaries

Otara's borders have been sliced and diced, and the suburb is now a mere 20 per cent of its former size. Rowena Orejana reports on how some residents have taken up the fight to prevent their neighbourhood being carved up any further.
He is Jim Sinclair: retired schoolteacher, local historian, community volunteer and activist.
He has fought for the survival of Otara Lake.
He is now fighting for the survival of Otara.
"Enough is enough. No more cuts to Otara,'' says Mr Sinclair, a member of the Otara Boundaries Action Group, which is pressing for Otara's original boundaries to be restored on official maps and as the community board's area.
Under proposals released by the Local Government Commission last Friday, the Otara area will combine with Papatoetoe to share a seven-member local board. Otara will elect three members to the board.
More concerning to Mr Sinclair and his group, however, is another cut to the Otara area. In the proposal, a block between Ormiston Rd and Accent Drive has been pared away to become part of the Howick-Pakuranga-Botany Local Board.
Otara has already shrunk to less than 20 per cent of its original area, says Mr Sinclairs. "The very mountain from which Otara gets its name is virtually no more.''
When Otara became part of Manukau City in 1965, it was the focus of the city's economic and political power. That power moved south when the new city centre was built.
"Because Otara had a lot of poor people, it got a bad name. The name Otara became almost synonymous with crime, gangs and those sort of things. So it became very easy to think, 'Oh, let's make it smaller','' he says.
The new group is fighting to have three sacred maunga, or mountains, of Otara restored within the Otara boundaries: Te Puke Otara, Matanginui and Arikinui. The group also wants the Flatbush area brought within the boundaries of a proposed new ward called Te Irirangi.
However, Otara Community Board chairman Tunumafono Ava Fa'amoe says the proposal is not practical. "If you do that you are going to have to split the Botany shopping centre. You will cut it in half. Plus, Botany is a community in its own right,'' he says.
The group and the community board acknowledge that maintaining Otara as a separate ward will not be feasible in the new super-city. But, instead of fighting for the original boundaries to be restored, Mr Fa'amoe wants a multi-ward relationship with Mangere and Papatoetoe because of their geographical and cultural ties.
"It will guarantee that residents of these areas will have their voices heard in the new council and will be represented by one of their own,'' he says.
Mr Fa'amoe's preference has been reflected in the Local Government Commission's proposal for the new Mangere Local Board.
In his way, Mr Sinclair and Mr Fa'amoe are after the same thing: a voice.
"Really, what we're arguing for is recognition," says Mr Sinclair. "There is an area that is called Otara. It was there historically. We want to keep a ward area in the new Auckland Council, an area that has got statutory responsibilities, rights and obligations that need to be met for the local residents.  [We want] one councillor on the Auckland Council and have a voice, a really recognisable voice, for Otara and also for Flatbush.''
He says the group will study the report and recommendations of the Local Government Commission "to see what they are proposing so that we can consider it carefully and come back with our own considered public submissions''.
"We're not asking for the name, Otara, to be perpetuated forever.
"It'll be there anyway, you can't extinguish a name. You can't extinguish a memory. It will be as strong as the people who want to hold it.''
Submissions on the new boards and wards must be made by 5pm, December 11.  See: www.lgc.govt.nz