Days in garden that unified river people

Several marches and protests were held in Wanganui in 1995, attracting national media attention. PHOTO/ FILE

It was seeing the nannies crying that moved Whanganui iwi to reclaim the patch of land they call Pakaitore in 1995.

What media have called an occupation, Mariana Waitai calls a reclamation while recalling the week in March 1994 when the Waitangi Tribunal heard the Whanganui River claim at Putiki Marae.

"Everyone was together and everybody heard the stories of the injustices ... what they had to live through. It really affected our people, especially our young," she told The Chronicle.

"You only knew your bits - to hear the whole thing, and see it from the old people ... the crying, tangi, that was really powerful."

The claim dated back to the previous century.

"It had been through every court system, and still we didn't have a say about how to look after our river. We were always being dictated to."

The 1990s were a turbulent time. The headwaters of the river had been diverted without consulting iwi in the 1970s, and the National government was touring the country with its "fiscal envelope" proposal - to limit financial redress to tribes with Treaty claims. People such as Tariana Turia and Sr Makareta Tawaroa had been to Treaty of Waitangi workshops.

At a Conservation Department hui at Kaiwhaiki, an elder showed a stoneware jar said to have contained arsenic added to sugar and flour to poison Maori in the mid-1800s.

Mariana Waitai has been part of what she calls the reclamation of Pakaitore/Moutoa Gardens from before it started and in the years since. PHOTO/ STUART MUNRO

"That created a lot of mamae (pain). We were survivors, but family to those who lost their lives through that action," Ms Waitai said.

She said there was a lot of anger, but most Wanganui residents wouldn't have known about it.

"Generally all of this stuff was kept within the walls of the marae. We all knew about it, but nobody else would."

The young people held a meeting at Pakaitore (Moutoa Gardens) to discuss the river claim. Somebody - Ms Waitai would not say who - suggested reclaiming the gardens.

Not everybody agreed, especially some of the old people who had a close relationship with Wanganui's mayor at the time, Chas Poynter.

After that, there were meetings about how to do it. Groups took on roles like spokesman and security. Activists Syd Jackson and Eva Rickard visited.

A group from Parihaka came to listen, including current Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell. When the group heard the planned action was peaceful, it was supportive.

Hotheaded young people were warned that the action had to be about the tribe as a whole.

"If you've got your own buzz that you want to do, then you go home," was the message.

There was also direct action. On January 2, 1995, a group went to the TV1 studios and stopped the six o'clock news in protest at the way Te Karere, the Maori news programme, was sidelined in favour of sport.

On February 3, Ms Waitai was part of a group that stopped people arriving for the Masters Games in Wanganui by blocking State Highway 3.

"We stopped the traffic with what we had in the shed - old fridges and stuff."

That protest was about the fiscal envelope. Ms Waitai enjoyed it because her nanny and koro used to live in a house moved to make way for the highway.

"It was during that time that the Public Works Act was enforced to remove the homestead and take the land for the road. The only compensation was for the removal of the home.

"So when we went to go and do the block on that road, I had no problem. That was a real 'up yours' moment. I felt good doing that."

The move was timed to happen on the day of a fiscal envelope hui at Kaiwhaiki. About 100 people gathered by the river at 4am on February 28 for karakia. Then they went on to the gardens, dug a hole and laid down the mauri stone.

"Then we kicked in our generator and started to raise shelter for ourselves."

By 10.30am that day, Wanganui District Council had heard of it and officers Colin Whitlock and Kevin Ross came to see what was happening.

Ms Waitai was in her early 40s then, and lived on or near Pakaitore for the duration of the protest. She was in charge of security at first, and then moved to the finance team.

The days always began with karakia, and George Waretini led everyone in tai chi before breakfast. The marae was swept by then, because the main business of the day was receiving visitors.

"People were always welcome. All that was asked was that you come through the front gate where you received a welcome."

After that there would be hariru (hongi and hugs) and kai, and visitors were free to ask questions. Ken Mair and Niko Tangaroa were two who were often on hand to answer them.

Wanganui photographer Leigh Mitchell-Anyon was the only Pakeha photographer allowed to photograph the event, which annoyed some people.

"He was given the sanction because he had the balls to get up in front of a hui and ask."

All the expenses were met by koha.

Ms Waitai said the media turned the occupation into a race issue when it was an injustice issue.

"People were just stunned with what's happened to their wonderful town - it blasted away the myth that we are all one people." Every night everyone got together and talked about everything that was going on.

The women of the Whanganui River are known for their niceness - there was no point being stroppy all the time Ms Waitai said - but they have another side.

"When it comes to the crunch, your best backing is a river woman.

"What people don't realise is that the ones who really called the shots were our kuia. Our men knew they were all right as long as our kuia were right beside them."

Despite marches, threats and other drama, the iwi walked off the gardens peacefully in the early hours of May 18, 1995.

Along with the tribe's annual canoe journey, the Tira Hoe Waka, the occupation was formative for the iwi.

"That was a whole decolonisation action. It helped us find us, because it ripped away all the pretence and other people's ideas of how we should be and how we should be told to be."

The occupation helped unify the river people. The whole of river Te Runanga o the Awa Tupua was formed in 1997, with John Maihi as kaiwhakahaere.

There were months of discussion with government and Wanganui District Council, leading to the signing of an agreement between them and iwi on February 28, 2001. Since then the gardens have been owned and managed by what Ms Waitai calls the Iwi:Kiwi group, consisting of all three. She's been one of the members.

Whanganui iwi now have more say in their district.

That became clear when Ken Mair said they might withdraw from partnerships with the council unless it asked for the Wanganui district to be spelt "Whanganui".

"Twenty years ago if we had pulled our relationships nobody would've given a damn. Twenty years down the track, it's a whole different relationship we're talking about."

And that's just the start of the change that will come with the settlement of the Whanganui River claim.

"The river agreements will end up making that relationship a hell of a lot different," she says.