Wrong audience
Cr Radich's impressive headline (Concern over the future of beach access for all, Northland Age Tuesday June 16) seems to me to replicate Helen Clark's famous whinge of 2004 regarding the foreshore and seabed (F&S). We remember that she over-ruled the court's decision in the Ngati Apa case, and announced publicly that if Mori were given kaitiakitanga (guardianship) of the F&S, non-Mori would be stopped from going on to beaches for recreational purposes.
Of course most non-Mori believed it, and supported Helen Clark's Labour government in legislating the F&S into the ownership of the government of New Zealand.
So I ask myself, why is Cr Radich regurgitating Helen's false claims? Is it because he considers himself more privileged to comment on public affairs because he is a councillor? Or as a councillor, is he privy to specific information that the public is not? Or is he merely grandstanding, as he once used to as a rugby referee?
Whatever it is, I only hope he has not forgotten that his heritage line also whakapapa back to the same as mine, that of the hap of Te Parewhero, out of Te Rarawa-kai-whare, and not just to his Yugoslav heritage.
However, in response to his reactions to Te Hiku iwi involvement in Te Oneroa-a-Tohe (90 Mile Beach) Governance Board (the board), I think his comments are an exhibition of self-opinion and presumption, rather than information that is based on meaningful research.
"Once the tribes have control ... " Cr Radich writes - I find these comments of his quite racially and culturally degrading and plain stirring, for which he is well known anyway. If there are to be any restrictions on any beach in Te Hiku o te Ika, I would expect they would result from information that is historically and culturally sound, is relevant to the present day and age, and environmentally transitional and sustainable going forward.
It seems Cr Radich has a fear that iwi members on the board will hijack the paramount object of the board, which is to protect the environment of Te Oneroa-a-Tohe. Inevitably, according to the Te Hiku Ward councillor, iwi will restrict and eventually stop public access to the popular stretch of beach known as Te Oneroa--The. What a load of tripe!
Further, I'd like to think that Cr Radich remembers the 1957 Te Oneroa-a-Tohe claim by our Muriwhenua rangatira Waata Tepania and Mutu Kapa, where this claim was based on te kaitiakitanga o te taiao o Te Oneroa-a-Tohe (the guardianship of the environment of the 90 Mile Beach). This came about because the local councils were not living up to their responsibilities of protecting the welfare, health and environment of Te Oneroa-a-Tohe.
Tourist buses were allowed to travel up and down the beach when it suited, crushing exposed juvenile toheroa at half-tides, dropping mechanical oils on to the beach surfaces and emitting petrol and diesel fumes to linger over and poison tuatua and toheroa beds.
The control over toheroa taken off the beach was generally monitored seasonally, and was not a real priority or concern for the councils, actually allowing a huge toheroa soup factory to operate - amidst protest from local iwi and community members alike. Huge toheroa beds that were continuously raided by unscrupulous individuals also added to the detriment of toheroa.
I haven't seen a single toheroa for almost 20 years on 90 Mile Beach, and I've lived in Ahipara for 60-plus years. However, environmentalists and marine biologists claim that there is still a great prospect of reseeding and restoring toheroa on 90 Mile Beach and, as a concerned Te Rarawa-kai-whare member, Cr Radich, I hope to sit on the "board" one day, and be included in the discussions that'll benefit the overall environmental recovery of Te Oneroa-a-Tohe - whatever that may look like.
Your mention too, Cr Radich, of financial charges to access the beaches by iwi, is as funny and ridiculous as your weekly rugby picks - you need to wake up, get real, or find another audience to whinge to!
Granted though, Cr Radich did get something right toward the end when he bravely stated that buses didn't run over the flounder and mullet - well obviously, they (the flounder and mullet) swim too quick to get run over.
SONNY HARRISON
Ahipara