Kia Ora: Nihao

In spite of the road closure at Brinderwyn on SH1 Northland I managed to get home to Haititaimarangai Marae on Friday 25th July for a Kaumatua Lunch organised by Keri-Ngawai and a wananga on the following Saturday:

First the Lunch-Hakari: I thought I was late for the hakari but Timoti Hetaraka the Minita, kai korero and MC was just winding up as I walked into the whare at the end of the whakangahau. It was great to see Dr Bruce Gregory our former MP for Tai Tokerau. The last time I saw him in our whare was the week after he was elected and Sir Graham Latimer got his knighthood. They both attended that meeting and I can't remember what it was for. Dr. Gregory was the MP who promoted the bill which saw Te Reo Maori becoming an official language of NZ. Great also to see Myra Berghan and so many others. The whare was full and so was the wharekai later. Nga mihi ki nga ringa wera me nga kai mahi ki roto i te kauta.

The Wananga: This was in the form of four workshops discussing the pluses and minuses of the developments proposed at Carrington Farms Ltd by the new owners with regards to the impacts in terms of: Economic, Cultural, Social, and Environmental. Each of the four groups circulated until all topics were discussed and the leaders recorded the feed back and presented it at the end. This is a good wananga or hui format mainly because everyone has a say or an input. It's not the usual hui format where a few speakers can dominate and the flow of ideas are therefore restricted. Briefly some questions and comments arose:

Economic Impacts: Will employment opportunities increase? Obviously yes and the new owners have already put full and part time workers on contracts which didn't happen before. The Chinese owners can do what the previous owners couldn't which is to increase the numbers of its golfing tourists from China. This will provide employment as the numbers of acomodation units increases. However, are these jobs sustainable? Also will workers be replaced by Chinese workers? What will be the impact on the local and national economy?

Cultural Impacts: Will the Carrington Resort and property be covered with Chinese signs? My group thought that any signs should be in Te Reo, English and Chinese. To what extent will the immediate community be affected by the presence of  new people in terms of tikanga? Will they bring in Maori artifacts made in China? Will there be opportunities for the tangata whenua arts and crafts to be made, displayed and sold by the resort?

Social Impacts: Will there be opportunities for social interaction with these tourists and in what form? 

Environmental Impacts: Will the new developments intrude on the local landscape and affect the ecology, such as waterways, the water quality, native or indigenous plants and animals, etc? What will the impact of many more tourists have on Karikari, Tokerau, Merita and other beaches? What about our local fishery? Will golfing tourists have time for fishing? Will they raid our kai moana?

There are many more thoughts, concerns and questions expressed at the wananga. Most of us were expressing ideals rather than realities which is fine. There's time for us to work out the realities. For example how good were we at looking after our environment before one Chinaman or woman set foot on the old Parakerake Block that our tupuna sold in 1868? I urge our steering committee of Simon, Trevor, Hori, and Karena to establish a list of provisos which the new owners would need to meet before Haititaimarangai Marae people will support any change in resource consents already granted. We also reserve the right to invite any other Ngati Kahu Marae to lend their support if we need it. However we deal with Carrington Farms under our own mana whenua which is Te Whanau Moana and more specifically Te Rorohuri or the descendants of Te Pari who traditionally had the mana of that whenua.

Naku na Atihana.