Iwi pledge on access to Mount

Tauranga Maori lost guardianship of Mauao in the 1860s. Picture / Bay Of Plenty Times

The Tauranga City Council is backing the return of Mauao - the volcanic dome known as The Mount at the entrance to Tauranga harbour - to its Maori owners.

Councillors yesterday accepted assurances from the chairman of Te Runanganui O Tauranga Moana, Colin Bidois, that public enjoyment of the well-loved landmark "would not be diminished" when the Crown handed it back, probably this year.

He said open access, non-commercialism and continued day-to-day administration by the city council would be enshrined in legislation. Those conditions could not be easily changed.

Mr Bidois said that, in legal terms, the handing back did not just involve Mauao's title.

"To us it also means the kaitiakitanga of its physical nature, the acknowledgement of its cultural, spiritual, historical significance."

The iwi petitioning Parliament for the historic mountain had been wrongfully deprived of their customary rights.

"We believe our society has matured whereby wrongs of yesterday can be acknowledged without guilt, dealt to in a mutually beneficial manner and celebrated by all," said Mr Bidois.

"Mauao is as important to tangata whenua of this area as Mt Taranaki is to its tribes, as Aoraki-Mt Cook to Ngai Tahu, as Hikurangi to the Ngati Porou. Each of these had the mana of their maunga returned to them - some then returned it to the Crown," he said.

Four iwi - Ngaiterangi, Ngati Ranginui, Ngati Pukenga and Waitaha of Te Arawa - have been negotiating for several years to get back the "mana" of their sacred mountain. After several generations of habitation by Tauranga Moana, it was confiscated by the Government in the 1860s.

Mr Bidois said iwi claimed the classic Maori customary tenurial rights to Mauao - "by discovery, by occupation, by conquest".

Throughout New Zealand, Mauao was the geographic marker by which tangata whenua of Tauranga Moana were identified at Maori gatherings.

He said the tribes lost guardianship of the mountain in the mid-19th century through Crown breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi.

The Crown had manipulated laws aimed at dismantling the social and political infrastructure of Maoridom, such as the New Zealand Settlement Act 1863, the Native Land Act 1873 and the Waste Lands Act.

"The loss of our lands, including Mauao, was a legal travesty. It was hypocritical manipulation of legislation by Crown agents backed by military superiority," he said.

In response to evidence produced at a recent Waitangi Tribunal hearing, the Crown admitted that the confiscation of 42,000 acres (17,000ha) "as punishment for perceived rebellion" was wrongful, Mr Bidois said.

* After the handing in of arms by local Maori following the land wars, the whole of the Tauranga Moana area was confiscated.

* Customary title, acknowledged by British Common Law, was extinguished. It was replaced by individual title on land handed back - including Mauao - making it easy for the Crown and speculators to acquire the land.

* Individualising of title meant land blocks had to be surveyed at the owner's expense. Unable to afford the costs, Maori were forced to sell and then termed "willing sellers".

* Pressure to sell land was contrary to Article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi.

* At the time, the fabric of Maori social and political strength had been greatly eroded by the loss of many leaders who died because of the land wars.