A warning sign at Judges Bay after a sewer pipe burst in Parnell yesterday. Photo / Dean Purcell
A warning sign at Judges Bay after a sewer pipe burst in Parnell yesterday. Photo / Dean Purcell
OPINION
My great-grandfather returned from the battlefields of Europe in 1919 to his beloved Okahu Bay village to witness a newly minted sewage scheme spewing raw effluent off Takaparawhau Point into our taonga, the Waitematā.
His generation was the last that lived off the land and the sea guided by their maramataka, their traditional seasonal calendar guiding the flow of life.
His great-grandfather before him had signed the Treaty of Waitangi at his Māngere Pā, close to where in the 1960s the city sewage scheme had shifted to at Ihumatao and whose Waiohua people suffered the additional indignity of their Oruarangi River being blocked with “poo ponds” on their doorstep.
As the Waitangi Tribunal’s Report into Bastion Point stated, “There could have been no greater insult to a Māori tribe even if one were intended. The disposal of human waste to water, especially in such great volumes offends all sensibilities of Māori people, particularly in proximity to the main habitation place, profaning that which is sacred.”
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei iwi call a rāhui on Waitemata Harbour.
Early Thursday morning, my people - supported by our kaumātua, who still recall the sickness and death caused by the sewage schemes - placed a rāhui across the Waitematā in response to the deluge of sewage caused by a blocked Ōrākei main sewer pushing overflows into the harbour.
It was a decision not taken lightly by my people, and followed kōrero from our leaders and elders into the night. A rāhui seeks to protect and preserve an area impacted by contamination. In calling for the rāhui we ask that there be no swimming, fishing, paddling, diving or entering water, to protect those who share our harbours and whenua.
However, transport across the Waitematā continues.
A rāhui is one of the few cultural tools still left to us in our kete as kaitiaki of the whenua and harbours of central Auckland. This is the second time in a year we have had to put a rāhui on our beloved Waitematā following the floods in January.
The Waitematā Harbour spans from Takaparawhau, over to Maungauika and towards the northwest to the upper Waitematā. We Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, tangata whenua of central Tāmaki Makaurau, take our responsibilities as kaitiaki incredibly seriously.
A rāhui is placed on the Waitemata Harbour following a sewer pipe blowout.
Our success in protecting and nurturing these resources for this and future generations benefits everyone who calls Tāmaki Makaurau home.
We, as guardians of our whenua which we call Te Kahu Tōpuni o Tuperiri and over our moana, Te Waitematā, will do all we can to ensure the protection and preservation of our whenua and environment. This includes making our communities and wider city aware that entering the Waitematā is not safe right now physically or spiritually.
Orakei sewer pipe. Photo Te Ara Encyclopedia.
We ask that everyone use this time to understand the part they have to play in protecting our harbours and the fish and birds that depend on them, so they are there for our tamariki and those yet to come.
To ask, what needs to be done to ensure these events do not occur, and that we work together, bringing our collective wisdom and strengths to an issue that is in the best interests of us all.
The rāhui will be lifted in consultation with Watercare in due course and when we are satisfied it is safe for all to once again engage with our waters. We thank the people of Tāmaki Makaurau for your support and tautoko as we seek to filfil our role of kaitiaki for us all.
Ngarimu Blair is the deputy chair of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust.
