Opinion: Iwi seek further discussion on a Māori ward

Kāpiti mayor K Gurunathan. Photo / Jack Penman

Weekly opinion column by Kāpiti mayor K Gurunathan.

Last week, the council voted not to support the creation of a Māori ward for the 2022 elections.

Interestingly enough, this decision was made on the advice of our three local iwi. Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai Charitable Trust, Nga Hapu o Otaki and Ngati Toa Rangatira advised that they did not support one at present, preferring to discuss this further in the next triennium. They said this would give them time to strengthen their respective Treaty relationships with the council.

These three iwi, through their collective ART Forum, rationalised their position further by stating that Māori wards "do not represent a Treaty partnership. Iwi remain as the Treaty partner."

This is an interesting position given the Local Government Act 2002 provides that councils "must" make provision for Māori participation in decision making. The assumption is that this clause was enabled by the Treaty. So is the clause under the Local Electoral Act 2001 that enables the creation of Māori wards.

At a number of councils the debate on Māori wards has been between those wanting such wards (I call them progressives) and those opposed who see the move as a form of separatism, the latter fuelled by the likes of the Act and National parties.

Kāpiti council's move, therefore, compared to other council situations, comes as a unique hybrid decision. Here we have mana whenua, or Māori from iwi that come from within the Kāpiti district, advising council we should not create a Māori ward at the moment.

Simply put, Māori have effectively said there was no need to have one at the moment. The progressives will find council's decision hard to criticise. Those supporting the Act/National Party also cannot criticise council as no Māori ward was created.

There is a complexity to Māori politics that needs to be understood. Firstly, the number of Māori electoral population in the district is 4750. A clear majority of them are matawaka or Māori from iwi outside of the district. There are also, as far as I know, no organised group representing matawaka interest in Kāpiti.

About 15 years ago, a breakaway group from Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai called Te Roopu Manakitanga led by Hugh Grace tried to create a pan-iwi group. Its failure, according to one source, was due to the strength of a shared Māori cultural/political protocol that 'required' matawaka to raise any concerns they have directly to their host mana whenua.

Council's own relationship with local iwi has been a long and changing journey. The iwi liaisons committee, Te Whakaminenga o Kāpiti, was formed in 1994. One of the longest iwi/council partnerships in the country. It was initially chaired by mayor Brett Ambler and then KCDC chief executive Glen Innes, before a number of years later it was rightfully taken over and rotated amongst the three iwi.

In the last two years, Te Whakaminenga seems to have reached a transition with the charitable trust pulling out to establish a more empowered direct relationship with council. The other two iwi are reviewing their own options.

One of the key issues for mana whenua has been the iniquity of increasing legislative demands for councils to consult and engage with iwi/Māori and the huge pressure on iwi/Māori to respond to this responsibility without the manpower and financial capacity to do so.

A situation expected to get worse with new empowering reforms currently legislated by the Labour Government. Including reforms to local government, the Three Waters, the RMA and even the Council of Legal Education recent announcement that all law schools will have to include Māori content in their core courses.

It's time councils and our communities start accepting the increasing engagement coming our way.