Iwi plan beach markers to make point

By TONY GEE

Far North west coast iwi Te Rarawa is to unveil its first pouwhenua (marker pole) on Ninety Mile Beach next month to reaffirm the tribe's ancestral customary rights to foreshore and seabed along its coastline.

A dawn ceremony, on a date to be confirmed but expected to take place immediately following Waitangi Day, will also mark the location at the southern end of the beach of the start of Te Ara Wairua.

Maori believe Te Ara Wairua is the sacred ancestral pathway that runs along the entire length of Ninety Mile Beach between low and high tide marks and is used after death by spirits travelling up the beach to Cape Reinga (Te Rerenga Wairua) - the leaping place of the spirits.

Te Rarawa is calling on Far North and nationwide iwi members, and non-Maori, to join the tribe and link hands in a human chain along the beach to celebrate Te Rarawa's traditional role as guardians of the local foreshore and seabed on the day of the unveiling.

More pouwhenua will be erected on key sites along the iwi's coastline in the weeks following the first unveiling.

Te Runanga o Te Rarawa chairwoman Gloria Herbert said the day would be an opportunity to educate people about how Te Rarawa sees the foreshore and seabed issues before the Government introduces proposed legislation in March.

"It [the unveiling] won't be a day of protest or confrontation."

Nor would the iwi's move threaten anyone's freedom to use Ninety Mile Beach, she said.

Meanwhile, on the Far North's east coast, a Ngati Kahu leader reports a "good reaction" by people on popular local beaches to public notices posted on notice boards saying 12 named beaches have belonged to the iwi for hundreds of years and always will.

The notice welcomes visitors and says they will always be welcome to share the beaches with Ngati Kahu.

Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngati Kahu chairwoman Dr Margaret Mutu said yesterday that notices put up on beaches had not been torn down.

"People we talk to about the issues are fine.

"They're a bit flummoxed about why the Government wants to do anything. They're saying just leave things as they are."