Coast from Napier airport to Mahia claimed

A series of tribal groups have claimed the Hawke’s Bay coastal area from the airport to past Mahia Peninsula because of the treaty and because “we were here first”, a public meeting at the Napier Sailing Club was told yesterday.

A further reason for the claims, Hugh Barr of the Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations of New Zealand told around 100 people at 7pm, was that the current government made them possible.

Prime Minister John Key gave away public ownership of the coastal area, that is the area from the high tide mark out 22km, in 2011 to buy the parliamentary support of the Maori Party by passing the Marine and Coastal Area Act, he said.

The Act allows a coastal tribe to gain customary marine title if they can show that they have exclusively occupied and used the foreshore and seabed since 1840.

Customary marine title gives tribes the right to declare areas sacred, the right to veto projects, the ability to charge fees for use of current and new slipways, wharves, aquaculture areas, marinas, and exclusive mining rights to iron-sand and minerals in the area, Dr Barr said.

Fines of up to $5000 will serve as penalty for those who go to yet-to-be-declared coastal sacred areas without permission

Activist Pauline Tangiora, who has lodged a claim on behalf of her Rongomaiwahine group for title to an area covering 2000km around the Mahia Peninsula, was at the meeting.

When asked how she could prove largely uninterrupted use since 1840, she said: “Because we live there”. When reminded that others live there too, she said: “The treaty gave us the right to look after our foreshore and seabed”.

The “we were here first” was the parting shot of one who took exception to Dr Barr’s address.

On January 2, Dr Barr told around 120 bach owners and claimants at Mahia the implications of a claim by the Rongomaiwahine group for customary marine title to the foreshore and seabed around Mahia Peninsula that few had heard about.

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