Wai Māori: Tangata whenua unite on approach to water rights

Tangata whenua of the Whanganui River catchment are laying the groundwork for recognition of freshwater rights ahead of long-awaited Government action to address the issue.

Leaders of hapū, iwi and Māori entities have been working together to put a stake in the ground before the Government moves to work through Māori water rights and interests, including allocation.

A national hui on freshwater rights was called earlier this year by the Freshwater Iwi Leaders Group of the National Iwi Chairs Forum, after the Government signaled its intention to address aspects of Māori water rights in 2021.

Gerrard Albert, co-chair of the Freshwater Iwi Leaders Group, says the hui in Whanganui called on hapū, iwi and other Māori entities to contribute to a national discussion and work toward a collective position on wai Māori, particularly around resource management reforms.

“Anticipating that the Government’s view of our rights in freshwater will fall short of what we know them to be, we wanted to affirm the breadth of our rights in wai Māori,” he said.

A ‘consolidated and central view of what wai Māori is to us’ was therefore the aim before Government moved to address freshwater rights and interests. This would guard against any assumption that Māori rights could be determined solely by Government.

“Only we can determine what our rights in freshwater are and how these are to be addressed.”

Representative bodies, including the New Zealand Māori Council, the Federation of Māori Authorities and Government freshwater advisory group Te Kāhui Wai

Māori, attended the January hui, but Gerrard – who also chairs Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui Trust – said hapū and iwi voices were critical.

“The Government wants to address our rights as hapū and iwi in freshwater but, rather than talking with hapū and iwi, it likes to deal with Māori bodies that represent a general Māori viewpoint and identity. We need to show that it is a bigger picture,” he emphasised.

“Hapū and iwi leadership have had to say we’re distinct from this ‘Māori collective’ that the Crown talks about. There is good leadership within those groups, but actually each one is distinct, hapū and iwi are distinct, and what we collaborate on is a common focus on securing a better place for our freshwater rights to be recognised.”

“We decided to hui together and show that we carry a kaupapa for wai Māori, because you can’t just turn up as councils or iwi leadership groups and talk to the Crown: you must carry it with the people.”

A series of regional hui will be held to gather more views. In Whanganui, a regional hui was called in early May (May 4) for iwi, hapū and whānau in South Taranaki, Whanganui, Rangitīkei and Ruapehu. The hui was to provide an update from the Freshwater Iwi Leaders Group technical team on resource management and water reforms.

“The hui are part of a decadeslong movement to recognise Māori freshwater rights,” Gerrard said.

“I remember in 1993 attending a hui in Taumarunui around Māori freshwater rights. The Government had just ushered in the Resource Management Act in 1991 and of course we were being shut out again. Those efforts have been ongoing – what we are doing now is part of that whole movement to ensure that our rights to speak for our waters are generated from our own view, from our own kawa, from our own tikanga and from our own worldview, rather than what the Resource Management Act or the Government of the day says.”

“Our relationship with wai Māori comes from our whakapapa. We continue to exist and the Crown can’t ever capture that – they must at every turn provide for it.”

Ātihau Whanganui Incorporation chair Mavis Mullins, who attended the national hui, said Trusts and Incorporations had for generations taken on a kaitiaki role but were now standing alongside settlement groups and hapū and iwi voices.

“We all have to be in the same waka with this. The view of hapū or iwi might be different from [the perspective of] a marae by the river, or from a whanau, or from a land block, but we have to talk to each other a lot more than we have in the past. If we’re not careful we can end up in a position where we’re at loggerheads with each other and we cannot let that happen.”

“It feels to me as if this is going to be the conversation of the decade, certainly of the year. A united voice is going to be critical.”