Iwi, trust thrash out site history

By ANNE GIBSON

Negotiations have begun between an iwi authority and a listed property trust to highlight the history of the $300 million Sylvia Park development site in Mt Wellington.

In a victory for Pakeha-Maori land relations, iwi general manager David Taipari, of Thames, and Kiwi chief executive Angus McNaughton, of Auckland, said negotiations were proceeding on an agreement struck last year to recognise the site's sacredness and exceptional history.

Iwi legal representative Paul Majurey, tumuaki (principal) of Nga Manu Taiko o te Ture (Russell McVeagh's Maori legal group), said the agreement ended four years of litigation and resulted in a successful outcome for both parties.

Majurey - of Ngati Maru, Ngati Whanaunga and Ngati Paoa descent - said this would result in more than just signage but exactly what form a display might take had yet to be decided.

Without the accord, Ngati Maru had the right to take its case to the Court of Appeal, but the settlement has led to the two parties beginning a negotiation process to establish how to highlight the land's significance.

On Friday, Kiwi told the stock exchange it was about to start its Sylvia Park project and made special mention of the deal with Ngati Maru.

Taipari said the arrangements gave him hope.

"We're hoping we can work with Kiwi to educate people who might use the facilities," Taipari said, adding that no specific mechanisms had been agreed on so far but this was being decided.

Signage or audiovisual technology were possible means which could be used to help people understand the land's cultural and historical importance.

In the largest property project planned in New Zealand, Sylvia Park owner Kiwi Income Property Trust wants to transform its Mt Wellington land into a shopping/leisure/office/housing/transport/entertainment/ complex of 148,000 sq m - nearly four times the size of Auckland's largest mall, Westfield's St Lukes.

But before it started work, Kiwi had to negotiate a settlement with the iwi, which had engaged in a drawn-out legal struggle with the trust.

The entire site has cultural significance to the iwi, particularly the area at the land's northern end near the Mt Wellington Highway. But Taipari emphasised that because the block was wahi tapu, it was impossible to ring-fence one particular area.

"There are no fences or barbed wire in our minds but there are rivers, streams, pa sites and hills and together they make up the complex. We want people to acknowledge and recognise that these things existed and still exist."

Taipari gave evidence in an Environment Court case in 2001 when Ngati Maru challenged Kiwi's plans for the land, claiming that construction activities for the new shopping centre would compromise the iwi's relationship with the site and its responsibilities.

But in June last year, Kiwi said a deal had been struck and Ngati Maru had withdrawn its challenge even though the High Court at Auckland had granted the iwi the right to pursue litigation against the trust in the Court of Appeal.

Taipari and McNaughton strongly denied that any money had changed hands between the iwi and the $1 billion listed trust when the settlement was reached.

"It's not about money," Taipari said. "That's another myth that's going around. It's a general assumption that Maori are getting paid off everywhere and that's incorrect."

In announcing the project on Friday, McNaughton singled out the cultural significance of the site for special mention.

"The design approach respects and builds on the Maori and European heritage of the site," McNaughton said, adding that the deal with the iwi was settled at midnight at Russell McVeagh's offices in the Vero Centre where he and Sylvia Park project director Evan Vertue met Russell McVeagh partner Paul Majurey. Negotiations had earlier involved another Russell McVeagh partner, Christian Whata.

The Environment Court heard how significant the site was and that partly down the eastern side and through the middle were "waahi pito and waahi whenua" where umbilical cords and afterbirth were buried, according to Judge David Sheppard's written summary.

Throughout the whole site, there were patches where blood was spilled and people of the Marutuahu tribal confederation had occupied the land and undertook cultural rites and practices on it.

When the iwi won the right to take its challenge to the Court of Appeal in 2002, Justice David Baragwanath in the High Court at Auckland ruled on the cultural importance of the site.

"The relationship between Maori and their ancestral land is not a mere verbal formula, but a value to be given serious weight because of its expression of the sensibilities of actual people," Justice Baragwanath wrote.

Those involved

* Kiwi Income Property Trust is New Zealand's largest listed property owner with $1 billion worth of assets and thousands of unit holders who have invested in the entity.

* Ngati Maru Iwi Authority represents a people whose area stretches from Mahurangi in the north to Katikati in the south, from the Kermadec Islands 966km north-east of Auckland across to the Waikato.

* Sylvia Park is a 24ha block of land occupied by American military sheds, leased on a short-term basis for storage, motor vehicle dealerships and retail sales, but soon to be transformed into a $300 million development.