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The powerful iwi Ngāi Tahu of the South Island is taking the government to court over the water, saying the Crown did not recognize his rangatiritanga over the appeal.
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The powerful iwi of the South Island says it wants to co-design a new regulatory regime. Source: 1 NEWS
A cast of tribal members and their rūnanga suing the government say it is a right of the Waitangi Treaty and guaranteed by their 1997 agreement.
“The claim statement is a response to the actual destruction of our waterways, our bodies of water, particularly in the South Island and I mean the destruction,” said Te Maire Tau, claimant for Ngāi Tahu.
“The settlement law solved past problems, but it also confirmed our rangatiratanga in the South Island and we have a clear vision that gives us regulatory fiscal authority over water.”
Mismanagement of resources, pressure on waterways, and over-allocation are issues behind the High Court action.
The now completely dry bed of the Selwyn / Waikirikiri River is one of the waterways, which was historically an important eel gathering place for Ngāi Tahu. The loss of that waterway is driving the claim.
“That wai came from our river and fed us our essence, our spiritual essence and now it is gone,” said Liz Kereru, a member of Ngāi Tahu iwi.
The Minister of the Environment, David Parker, kept his portfolio, but today he did not.
In August, it announced new freshwater rules that require councils to protect the health and well-being of rivers. In principle, the new rules also recognized the authority of tangata whenua. That authority has not been recognized, says Ngāi Tahu.
“We are seeking a declaratory judgment on our opinion if we clearly have rangatiratanga that was secured in the Liquidation Law that we signed in 1998, the Crown has promised confirmation or rangatiratanga and would cooperate now clearly there has been no cooperation on water,” Tau said.
“It has been largely unidirectional of the Crown’s attempt to assimilate our tribe into its kaupapa.”
An associate professor of law says the problem is that “Maori are not just another stakeholder.”
“The problem here is that Maori in relation to freshwater rights and interests are not just another stakeholder, but they are part of the decision-making authority, or they should be part of the co-design, part of the co – determination in terms of what those decisions are, ”says Carwyn Jones of the University of Victoria.
