Opinion: Tuna tied to our whakapapa

Pointing the way: Whanganui tuna (eel) expert Ben Potaka with, at rear, Doug Jones (obscured) and Dion Tuuta at the national conference. Photo/Bevan Conley

TE WAI Maori Trust this week hosted the second National Maori Tuna Conference at Whanganui when we were pleased to bring together more than 200 iwi, commercial and customary fishing interests, scientists and policy advisers from central and local government, and independent scientists and experts.

It was an honour, as chair of Te Wai Maori Trust, and a privilege, as an uri of Whanganui, to connect the tuna (eel) conference and the significance of Te Awa Tupua.

The Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 accords a legal personality to the Whanganui River. For the first time the innate values, or rights, of a natural resource are defined at law via kawa, our indigenous world-view.

All hapu, iwi and tupuna share the same kawa-based relationship with their rivers, lakes and coastal waters. In kawa, all living things are linked through whakapapa, connecting people, birds, fish, trees and natural phenomena, and legitimising our place in this land and shaping our views as peoples of this land.

Tuna, in our indigenous world-view, are acknowledged as having status and personality due to their direct whakapapa links with iwi and hapu.

The status of tuna has been ignored and nearly destroyed with the construction of dams, the pollution of waterways and destruction of habitat. Those responsible for environmental governance and management have provided extensively for the habitat of trout while ignoring native fisheries.

We should also acknowledge the possible impact of climate change on the breeding grounds of tuna in the Pacific near Tonga. While there is a need for a lot more research, at a minimum we should be forming an alliance with our Pacific cousins and working together to ensure the future health and well-being of the tuna breeding grounds in the Pacific.

The steady undermining of the status of tuna is akin to the undermining of our whakapapa.

At the conference, we asked those gathered if we could continue to tolerate the status of tuna -- and our indigenous world-view -- being undervalued.

Together we explored ways to ensure the status of tuna is acknowledged, valued, and effectively provided for locally and nationally; that included a debate about the pros and cons of the various legal options that could uphold Te Mana o Nga Tuna, namely legal protection, legal recognition or legal personality.

To lose our tuna is to lose our identity. We must find solutions to improve waterways to ensure changes are not at the expense of the status and the whakapapa of tuna. This is not a kaupapa we can afford to put off.

Te Wai Maori Trust and Whanganui Iwi hosted the second National Maori Tuna conference on July 17-18 at the Whanganui War Memorial Centre. Videos of presenters' presentations is available on www.tuna.conference.maori.nz

Ken Mair is chairman of Te Wai Maori Trust