Hīkoi mō te Whenua spokeswoman Hinerangi Himiona calls out past land grabs as last month's SNA protest march passes Kaikohe District Court. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Hīkoi mō te Whenua spokeswoman Hinerangi Himiona calls out past land grabs as last month's SNA protest march passes Kaikohe District Court. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Northland iwi are hailing the Far North District Council's decision to shelve its controversial Significant Natural Areas plan — but say it's only as a first step to proper engagement with Māori.
This week the council announced it would remove SNA maps from its draft District Plan until it gets clear direction from the Government.
The proposal to designate large swathes of the Far North as SNAs sparked a 2000-strong hīkoi through Kaikohe in June, and was one of the issues that spurred thousands of farmers and ute owners to protest around Northland this month.
Iwi feared the expansion of SNAs would limit their ability to develop Māori land at the very time they were being encouraged to do so. Some deemed it a ''modern-day land grab''.
Ngāti Wai chief executive Huhana Lyndon welcomed the council's move.
''My primary mihi is to council for listening. They went with an option that wasn't recommended by their staff - to ditch SNAs for now. It showed they had courage to address the fact they had chosen the wrong path at the beginning.''
Lyndon said Māori did not oppose protecting what was left of Northland's native biodiversity. The problem was the way SNAs had been implemented.
''It just came up in a letter in the post with no engagement with us,'' she said.
The council should have told iwi and hapū what it was required to do by the Government, then worked out a way of meeting those obligations together.
''It was the together part that was missing. They also have obligations under the RMA [Resource Management Act] to engage with Māori.''
Ngāti Wai chief executive Huhana Lyndon takes part in the June 11 SNA hīkoi through Kaikohe. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Lyndon said the council should ''absolutely'' continue with the District Plan — minus the SNA maps — but the protection of native biodiversity had to be addressed at a national level.
Northland iwi could work with the council to plan a response serving as a test case showing the rest of New Zealand how to do it better.
''Let's front-foot it as a region and say, 'You've seen us on the national stage, it wasn't a good look — but now we're at this point, what's the solution to allow us as hapū, iwi and communities of the Far North to plan this together?'''
Lyndon said just because engaging properly with tangata whenua was hard, that didn't absolve councils of their obligations.
The council decision was also welcomed by the organisers of the June 11 hīkoi.
Hīkoi mō te Whenua spokeswoman Hinerangi Himiona said: "This is a positive first step in the right direction for discussions with tangata whenua around why and how we can work together."
Rueben Taipari, who led hīkoi from Te Rerenga Wairua to Panguru and then to Kaikohe, thanked everyone who had supported the kaupapa and said it was a ''small but significant win'' for everyone who took part.
