The Waitangi Tribunal has heard how Northland rivers have gone from clear and teeming with fish to polluted and all but lifeless in a generation.
For the past week the tribunal has been hearing grievances of Bay of Islands hapu Ngati Kuta, Patukeha, Te Kapotai and Ngati Manu in the second week of the Northland Inquiry, which is examining 350 Ngapuhi claims in what could be the biggest Waitangi Treaty settlement to date.
The week began with a journey by boat and bus around the sites of atrocities and land losses from the 1840s to the 1970s, followed by four days of hearings at the Copthorne Hotel's Waitaha Hall in Waitangi. Claimants spoke of historic injustices but also more recent grievances relating to pollution, education and te reo.
Harry Mahanga said Ngati Manu's rohe [tribal area] had suffered a huge loss of biodiversity, starting with the clearing of native forest for pine and farmland, and the introduction of weeds such as gorse and tobacco. Erosion, sedimentation and cows defecating in the river had combined with overflows from the Kawakawa wastewater plant and sewage from boats to pollute the rohe's waters. The regional council appeared to do little monitoring of the thousands of boats that moored around Opua, he said.
Mr Mahanga said he had high regard for Pakeha science but it had to be used alongside hapu knowledge. "Pakeha think Maori tikanga [customs] gets in the way of progress, but Pakeha progress has come at a great and unnecessary cost."
Eighty-year-old Pae Wynyard recalled how he could drink straight out of rivers like the Taumarere, and how it teemed with eels and huge herrings. Now the fishing places of his youth were lifeless. When he worked at Moerewa freezing works he saw blood and offal discharged directly into a stream there. Similar dumping occurred at the dairy factory nearby.
Kitty Mahanga-Nisbett recalled fishing in the Taumarere River when the water was clear enough to see tuna [eels] feeding on the bottom. "Now all I can see is brown, dirty water." As a child her elders had taught her about the birds of the forest and which fish to throw back to ensure future breeding. "But I can't teach my children what my parents and teachers taught me, and all that happened in a generation while the government and councils were supposedly safeguarding and fixing our environment ... I want my mokopuna to experience what I could as a child," she said.
The mana of Ngati Manu Marae also suffered because it could not offer its visitors kai moana and was unable to practice kaitiakitanga [guardianship].
Ms Mahanga-Nisbett urged the regional council and the dairy industry to recognise that livestock in Northland's waterways was a serious problem. She also called for better monitoring of waterways and stricter enforcement.