Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Tiaki Taonga - Protecting taonga Māori

Bush Telegraph
17 Mar, 2024 09:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The kawakawa plant has rongoā Māori (traditional Māori medicinal) properties.

The kawakawa plant has rongoā Māori (traditional Māori medicinal) properties.

What is the best way to protect taonga Māori so that they can be safely passed on to future generations?

That question is at the heart of the groundbreaking WAI 262 claim.

The claim was lodged at the Waitangi Tribunal in 1991 by six claimants on behalf of six iwi - Ngāti Kuri, Te Rarawa and Ngātiwai from Northland, Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Kahungunu from the East Coast and Ngāti Koata from the top of the South Island.

WAI 262 is commonly known as the Fauna, Flora and Intellectual Property Rights claim. It seeks the protection of taonga Māori by tangata Māori.

The first taonga introduced for protection were flora and fauna like the kūmara and kererū. But others were added over time such as rongoā, whakapapa and other traditional knowledge.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Henare Kani.
Henare Kani.

WAI 262 was the first contemporary claim that focussed mainly on the Crown’s existing laws, rather than the Crown’s historical breaches of Te Tiriti.

Henare Kani, (Rangitāne, Ngāti Kahungunu, Tūwharetoa) said: “It’s been seen as the mother of all claims”.

Henare said there is a clear need for a mechanism to protect taonga Māori.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Last year’s trademark case over mānuka honey, which New Zealand honey producers lost, highlights how ill-equipped our current system is at protecting taonga and mātauranga Māori.

Henare is part of a team working on putting the WAI 262 claim into action for Ngāti Kahungunu.

Many taonga Māori have potential uses that are still being understood by western science, such as the medicinal uses of kawakawa.

Henare said rather than reacting to potential advances and trying to challenge them, his group decided to focus on protecting Maori Intellectual Property (IP).

He said they are encouraging Ngāti Kahungunu people to record what they have, which can then be loaded into a database developed for the project.

“At this stage we’ve got a system that they are testing, it could be flora and fauna, or film, a song or traditional knowledge,” he said.

Whānau can load their taonga into this database, then only they would be able to access it. Other people can view what is in the database but they would need the owner’s permission to access and use it.

Henare said the plan from here is to build capability, which includes training iwi members on how to protect their taonga. He said it’s also an opportunity to turn the resources and taonga that Māori have into a benefit for the iwi.

While the claim was lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal by six iwi, the benefits will be felt by all iwi. For Rangitāne o Tamaki nui-ā-Rua, the protection of our IP is critical. The value of the work by Henare, and the other claimants, to ensure our taonga are protected, is immeasurable.

Henare said the kaupapa is mainly about protection.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“In the past we’ve left it up to the government to protect our taonga, but it doesn’t benefit us.”

YouTube Henare Kani on Tiaki Taonga https://images.app.goo.gl/8ViJahgWszF48wCQ9

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Hawks retire No 14 to honour the career of Willie Burton

19 Jun 04:57 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

Watch: 'Hand of God' controversy in schoolboy rugby scrum

19 Jun 04:29 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

Upgraded flood resilience work on Wairoa River Bar starts this week

19 Jun 04:00 AM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawks retire No 14 to honour the career of Willie Burton

Hawks retire No 14 to honour the career of Willie Burton

19 Jun 04:57 AM

Burton arrived as an American import. Forty years later, he's honoured as a Hawks legend.

Watch: 'Hand of God' controversy in schoolboy rugby scrum

Watch: 'Hand of God' controversy in schoolboy rugby scrum

19 Jun 04:29 AM
Upgraded flood resilience work on Wairoa River Bar starts this week

Upgraded flood resilience work on Wairoa River Bar starts this week

19 Jun 04:00 AM
Second person charged with interference in teen homicide investigation

Second person charged with interference in teen homicide investigation

19 Jun 03:44 AM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP