Cooking and eating was done under a tarpaulin shelter during the reclamation of Tieke. Photo / supplied
It's been a long and winding road toward Tamahaki people once more owning their Whanganui River kainga, LAUREL STOWELL hears.
On this day 25 years ago members of the Tamahaki iwi returned to what was once an important Whanganui River kainga and re-lit the fires of occupation.
They wanted their land back. Since then it has been partially returned in a "backdoor deal". Their occupation or reclamation lasted more than seven years, and during it one of the pivotal people, kaumātua Larry Ponga, died while speaking during a pōwhiri.
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Those years were formative for many of the young people involved. Shum Te Huia says he would do it all again if he had the chance. For Tanea Tangaroa it was "an amazing and empowering journey".
The occupation lasted many years and has taken twists and turns. These days members of Te Whānau o Tieke can come and go from the kainga whenever they choose, and are sometimes there to welcome canoeists on the Whanganui River Journey.
In 1993 it was different. The land was within Whanganui National Park, and managed by the Department of Conservation (DoC). Tieke had one small hut, used by people canoeing the river.
On flat land at a bend in the river, Tieke was once a substantial settlement. It had a fortified pā, a kainga (village) a lookout hill, an urupā (graveyard), a wharenui, and was the home of leader Te Rangihuatau. It was a place of learning and trade.
In 1841 80 to 90 people were living there. But by December 1986, when Whanganui National Park was gazetted, they had all gone.
The land - 108ha which included the hill and urupa - was mistakenly included in the park.
"The surveyors took it with the stroke of the pen", former Tamahaki chairman Robert (Boy) Cribb said.
"This wasn't an iwi issue. It was a legal issue."
The mistake was recognised by authorities, and 10ha was offered back to Tamahaki. The iwi didn't take it. Its people wanted all the land, including the urupa and hill.
In I993 Tamahaki had other reasons to feel angry. Government bodies dealt with river issues through two chosen groups - the Whanganui River Māori Trust Board and, liasing with DoC, the Te Ranga Forum.
Tamahaki wasn't represented on either of them, so could not talk to the state about its own land and river issues. Its people were annoyed that DoC was charging for use of huts and campsites on the river, and some of them wanted to manage the park themselves.
In 1993 members of the Waimarino Whare Wānanga (house of learning) met, and decided the time had come to move back onto Tieke.
"It was a matter of everyone coming together. The timing was right to actually go home," said Tanea Tangaroa.
Mark Cribb, Rangi Bristol, Paora (Baldy) Haitana, Larry Ponga, Piripi Haami and others arrived. They said the karakia, did the ceremonies and lit the ahi ka, the fire of occupation. The two women with them were Rangimarie Ponga and Tanea Tangaroa.
They moved into the DoC hut, attached a tarpaulin to the side of it and used that space for cooking. When visitors came they were always accommodated, and welcomed in the traditional way.
Word spread, and people from other iwi joined them.
"People started coming from all parts of the country."
Within a month then-race relations commissioner Joris de Bres arrived. Government wanted the word "occupation" out of the story. Niko Tangaroa, who wasn't a descendant, offered to symbolically leave. After that the occupation could be called a kaitiakitanga (guardianship) instead.
The mum and dad of the group were Larry and Rangimarie Ponga. Larry never deviated from his rangatiratanga mission to reclaim the land. He hoped police would get involved, people would be arrested and the ownership of the land would be tested in a courtroom.
Right from the start the occupation had three rules. No firearms, no drugs and no alcohol. It established a daily routine - karakia (prayers), breakfast and cleaning up the marae by 2pm, ready for the first lot of visitors to arrive.
Visitors were told about why Tamahaki was in occupation.
"A lot of them were curious. When they did come on and actually spend a night with us they were just like 'Wow, we never knew the history and the issues'. It made them more aware," Tanea said.
Some returned to support the action. Others went to Treaty [of Waitangi] workshops in their own communities to learn more.
Larry and others supervised groups of young men referred by the court system. They stayed for six months, and for most the change was helpful.
"It was amazing to see them grow and learn about who they are, the land, the river, the bush, the history and taking care of people," Tanea said.
The occupiers put up their own row of tent shelters along the river, all roofed with blue tarpaulin. There were more people there in summer. In winter, when it was muddy and cold, numbers dwindled to about 10.
On busy summer days they could be hosting 100 people, with most of the canoeists sleeping in tents in the lower campground, or in the DoC hut.
The occupiers each put in $10 a week and bought first one jetboat, Tieke Lady, then another. Supplies came in every Thursday, by boat. Otherwise the only way to reach Tieke was by canoe or a three-day walk from the Ruatiti Valley.
Shum Te Huia, Larry and Rangimarie's son-in-law, was there for four years, helping supervise the teenagers. He remembers veges being grown, deer and pigs hunted at weekends and sheep grazed and shorn on the other side of the river.
They were good times for a young man. He would like to live them again.
"If I didn't have to make money to pay for bills here I would be back there in an instant," he said.
Tanea held sweat lodge sessions for women and has "really amazing memories" from the time.
"Every day there were people coming in, for all those years."
Bryon Fawcett was operations manager for what was then DoC's Whanganui Conservancy. Down in Whanganui he heard about the occupation and its blue tarp structures. He worried about gas cylinders exploding, and tents being flooded or blown away. From what he heard the occupation was "quite unsanitary and quite unsafe".
"At one stage there was a move to have them moved on. We did talk to the police about it. It never came to that," he said.
The occupiers could be hostile to DoC staff.
"Several times I was threatened to be thrown in the river when I went up there," Bryon said.
On one day in 2000, the Taranaki-Whanganui Conservation Board visited Tieke to see what was going on. They were welcomed in the usual way but the unusual happened - Larry Ponga died as he was speaking on the marae. He had been living in cold and damp conditions, and had had rheumatic fever.
"He actually died in front of them on the marae. He was giving a kōrero and he collapsed and died," Boy said.
He decided then that no one would ever die at Tieke as the result of hardship again.
Tamahaki people were still angry their ties to Tieke were not recognised by the state. In 2001 Boy was the iwi's chairman and, with agreement from the people - he saw an opportunity to change that. He knew DoC's iwi liaison group, the Te Ranga Forum, had walked away after a disagreement. He took advantage of the vacuum by going to Bryon to ask for a memorandum of understanding over Tieke.
In it DoC agreed to pay $240,000 to upgrade facilities and improve health and safety for Tieke occupiers and visitors. It allowed Tamahaki to put up a wharenui and pou (carved pole) on its marae.
The row of tents and huts and the makeshift cooking area had to go. The sewage system was upgraded, a bigger 20-bunk hut was built, and a wharekai (cooking and dining room) was added.
Tamahaki raised $67,000 for the wharenui. It was prefabricated in Whanganui, flown up the river from Pipiriki and erected in 2003. The pou was carved by Kenny Jones, put in place and blessed.
Everything was much more sanitary and convenient, but the spirit of the place changed, Tanea said. A lot of the original people left, their dream of standing firm until they had the land had been shattered.
The memorandum of understanding was a "backdoor deal" made on the quiet, Boy said.
"Some said we sold out to DoC. But my main aim was having shelter for ourselves, our people, and having a meeting house so that we can welcome international visitors to our marae," he said.
Since then Tieke people can be there whenever they want, and are sometimes present to welcome river tourists. There are also DoC wardens there in summer, and Tamahaki gets a hand in choosing them this year. The visitors and land are managed in partnership with DoC.
Meanwhile, progress toward a proper settlement of land claims in the large Whanganui District grinds slowly on. Tamahaki lands will be part of it, but Tieke will have to be considered separately, and later, because it is inside the national park.
Waitangi Tribunal Judge Carrie Wainright has recommended all the marae within the national park be returned to their hapū (subtribes), Boy says. He's hopeful the final goal will be achieved - the land returned to hapū descendants.
Another page in the occupation's history was turned recently, when kuia Rangimarie Ponga passed away. She was farewelled in a tangi at Raetihi on September 3.
Boy acknowledges the sacrifices she and her husband Larry made.
"Their family was the backbone of Tieke," he said.
One adult died at the scene and three people suffered minor to moderate injuries.