Ngahiwi Tomoana: Leaders seen as male, pale & stale

Ngahiwi Tomoana

HAWKE'S Bay Regional Council, Central Hawke's Bay District Council, Hastings District Council and Napier City Council are chewing the freshwater bone at both ends.

Hawke's Bay and Central Hawke's Bay plan to trap the water at the top ends of our rivers, while Hastings and Napier are wilfully giving or sucking it away at the other end, with outrageous limits to water bottling companies with international interests, and which have already plundered their own countries' water resources.

All councils collectively throw their hands up in despair and say that they are following "the law", and it's us ignorant numbskulls in the middle who have got it all wrong.

But last year iwi were called in to assist Twyford horticulturalists, who were banned from irrigating their orchards, jeopardising hundreds of jobs in Hastings; and although the Heretaunga Taiwhenua held a water right further upstream of Twyford and were prepared to share it, "the law" prevented any transfer of water allocation in this dire situation.

This also occurred the year before on the Tukituki River, where hundreds of fruit trees died through an irrigation ban.

Yet water is still being prostituted wantonly at the top and bottom ends of our precious aquifers to maximise short-term corporate profits by a fortunate, powerful few who will sell their rights as soon as the price is right, while you and I will face hose sprinkler and car washing bans at our homes. But we will be able to buy bottled water from offshore companies using our free water! It's crazy, but that is "the law".

And that sucks!

Heretaunga, which traditionally stretches from the Mohaka River to Akitio, was originally named by Whatonga as "Heretaunga haukunuiararauharotekahutakotonoa", which translates roughly as "Heretaunga of life-giving waters nourishing arcadian pathways, the beauty of which is best overseen by the soaring hawk, representing chiefly authority of many generations hither and hence".

The word "arcadian" has ancient Greek origins, and is used here as a vision for pastoral and horticultural harmony with nature.

Heretaunga is one of, if not the most, fertile places on the planet, and if we are not vigilant like the kahu (hawk), we will see these majestic lands turned into a desert by self-serving, regional water barons, who will sell out to the highest bidder.

We need a future-proofing water management regime that is developed by the entire community, that retains the wealth of our aquifers within future generations of Heretaunga residents, and this can happen only if the whole texture of the community is involved.

A meeting of regional leaders involving all five mayors and chairs of our councils occurred recently, and was pictured on the front page of this paper, etching out a more collaborative future, which is great for Hawke's Bay, except it's the same old picture I've often heard described as male, pale, stale!

Where were the women, the Maori, the NGOs, the ethnics, the youth, the innovators, and so on?

We will get consulted, insulted, and then assaulted by the same old thinking, the same old strategies, the same old "law", the same obtuse misuse and abuse of our environmental treasures, our taonga tuku iho.

The Melbourne Cup was won for the first time by a woman named Michelle Payne, aboard Prince of Penzance, and the strapper was her brother Steve, who has Down syndrome.

The second horse was an Irish hurdler, ridden by Europe's top jockey, while the third placed horse, Criterion, was ridden by Michael Walker, who is Maori.

Full credit to the trainers and entrepreneurs who had the courage and flare to bring a new texture, colour, depth, mosaic and mana to this fabulous event.

We need a dose of that closer to home, lest "the law" becomes a desert to itself!

Nghiwi Tomoana is chair of Ngti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated.