ENV-2013-AKL (DRAFT) STATEMENT OF EVIDENCE OF HUHANA DAVIS (WHAEA OF PIRITAHI MARAE) ON BEHALF OF DIRECTION MATIATIA INCORPORATED AND OTHERS

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1 BEFORE THE ENVIRONMENT COURT IN THE MATTER of a notice of motion under section 87G of the Resource Management Act 1991 (Act) requesting the granting of resource consents to Waiheke Marinas Limited to establish and operate a marina at Matiatia Bay, Waiheke Island, in the Hauraki Gulf ENV-2013-AKL (DRAFT) STATEMENT OF EVIDENCE OF HUHANA DAVIS (WHAEA OF PIRITAHI MARAE) ON BEHALF OF DIRECTION MATIATIA INCORPORATED AND OTHERS 28 July 2014 Counsel Acting: K R M Littlejohn Quay Chambers littlejohn@quaychambers.co.nz PO Box AUCKLAND 1143

2 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Ko wai ahau ki te korero I pa ana ki te Motu O Arairoa - Waiheke Island? Who am I to speak in this context, in relationship to Matiatia, Waiheke Island, Tikapa Moana, Hauraki Gulf? 2. My name is Huhana Davis. I have lived on Waiheke Island for over 30 years as a ratepayer. I am a mother of 9, grandmother to 23 and great grandmother. 3. I am of Ngati Paoa, Ngati Whanaunga, Ngati Karaua, Ngati Maniapoto descent. My Whakapapa is as follows: Whakapapa of Huhana Davis from Paoa Paoa = Tauhakari=Tukutuku Toawhane Toapoto Koura = Waenganui Parehiawe = Kahoki KiriIka = Te Umu Pareue = Nuku Wairoro = Te Whare Te Tiwha = Rangimaunu Tiki = Te Mahia Maraea Tiki = Patene Mere Kaimanu = Hone Reweti-Davis Charles Richard Davis = Edith Peel John Charles Davis = Shirley Signal Huhana Davis = Eugene Behan-Kitto

3 2 4. I represent the only Marae on Waiheke Island - Piritahi Marae - as Whaea of our Marae. This mantel has been acknowledged through service given for our Island, our community, our people over these many years. 5. I am also a teacher at Waiheke High School. 6. Therefore I speak on behalf of my whanau, which is a Waka full on its own, my Hapu, my numerous Iwi as aforementioned of Tangata Whenua, Mana Whenua of Waiheke Island, of Hauraki-Maniapoto - Tainui Waka. I seek to represent and to follow up my initial submission; to reiterate and defend my position of total anger, anguish and opposition to this proposal to build a Marina in our Sacred gateway to the world - Matiatia, Waiheke Island - Tainui Waka. 7. My evidence is also given for Direction Matiatia Inc on behalf of Piritahi Marae. 8. My evidence will explain the geography of Matiatia Bay from a Maori point of view, discuss the koiwi tangata in the Bay and their reinterment. I will also give evidence concerning the waahi tapu nature of our Bay. GEOGRAPHY OF MATIATIA 9. Matiatia or more correctly of ancient Reo Maori is Mataitai meaning of the tides - meaning when you go to find Kaimoana Seafood, never to assume your take, but to respect that it is gifted through the Tangaroa, God of the sea and all things in it Matiatia is one of the most beautiful and sacred harbours in the whole Hauraki Gulf possibly the world. Matiatia Harbour consists of two headlands, two points. 11. The first is Whetu Matarau meaning a land point aligned with the multitudes of star points (literal translation is star, face, one hundred). But it is difficult to truly translate for those not versed in Tikanga or the intrinsic wairua of our indigenous language (similar to Te Tiriti o Waitangi!) 12. Whetu Matarau is a head land point, continuing to this day to be in Maori ownership. This sacred point facing due north aligned to the

4 3 astral reading systems so important to Maori is emphasised by the Tainui Waka star chart readings (Attachment A). You now need to visually look at the lay of this land to truly understand any of the virtue of which I now speak. Its land form denotes it is of this astral ancestral Waka! 13. The second headland point - on the right hand side as you leave our Island - is called Mokemoke, a Waahi Tapu in its own right because of its historic use as a Pa Site. Visually, and its significance is appropriately so, it offers protection to Matiatia and Whetu Matarau and the Island as a whole. 14. So on one side, an anchoring point of significant astronomical importance, gifted this name for real purpose; and on the other a Pa Site, sanctioned as a Waahi Tapu from its significance in history. KOIWI TANGATA 15. Then there are our Niho the teeth, referring to the multitude of our Bones that lie across the whole interface of the most accessed part of the seashore side of Matiatia reaffirmed by our historical knowledge of Nga Puhi, Taranaki and Tainui Iwi interaction of Pakanga - War and bloodshed; Papakainga homesteads, built and lived in intergenerationally. 16. Matiatia has been a bay of enterprise through the hard graft of Maori entrepreneurship (i.e. Ropata Te Rau), who owned many schooner which helped feed and house the beginnings of Auckland City. This is all confirmed through the well-researched history of Paul Monin and others. We know multitudes of Niho the teeth of our Ancestors - lie here. Both from our knowledge of this place - our place and from the Land X-ray done for the marae last year. Our teeth are everywhere in this place in the whenua above and below the moana. 17. We know koiwi are on the bottom of the Bay because of history and because they have washed up on the shores of Matiatia in the past. In constructing the marina, the seabed of Matiatia Bay will be disturbed and what lies there including the koiwi of those long gone. These dredgings will be placed in a reclamation for the boat owners to park their cars on or they will be dumped at sea somewhere else in the Gulf where they will lie on the sea floor alone and forgotten.

5 4 18. I personally have been involved in the reinterment of bones over many years and have heard many stories of those that have come from these tribes during those times, and our elders stories, some now passed on and I recognise the sincere research of this area undertaken by Paul Monin reaffirming the significance of history of Matiatia to our Island. I have been involved in significant community celebrations of Rapata Te Rou the only Tipuna actually designated inside the white picket fence at Matiatia. Over twenty years ago now as collective of locals and Paoa celebrating the 100 th year of his life s work and recognising why he rests where he does. WAAHI TAPU 19. It is unthinkable to dredge this area simply to create a marina, it is morally reprehensible to disturb the sea floor and in doing so, knowingly exhume koiwi in the dredgings 20. It is like digging up a cemetery - something that is allowable only for some great purpose. We say this marina is not for a great purpose and our ancestors and their foes should be left to lie in peace. Matiatia is a sacred place to us it is waahi tapu. 21. I was involved with the most recent reburial of bones to an area now adjacent to the designated reclamation for the carpark area of this proposed Marina. On this occasion some thirty to forty of Mana Whenua Ngati Paoa, Ngati Whanaunga, Ngati Maru and Piritahi Marae gathered beside Ropata Te Rau s grave to hold service and acknowledge all those that lie across Matiatia Bay. Then Kaumatua carried the bones that had come up through the pathway and foreshore and we walked past the old wharf, past the Dinghy Bay, through the gate and down the path and along the beach a short way and then reinterred our Tipuna a short way into the grasslands fringing the beachside. A service to close included karakia seeking peace for those reinterred and for all whom lay in this harbour. 22. Indeed worthy of acknowledgment too is the many decades of personal dedication by Don Chapple to restore the vitality of this landscape. He planted tree by tree, hand grown seedlings, to create the stunning native bush now lining the hillsides of the valley which we

6 all pass through to access Matiatia today. A true legacy of a renowned historian and conservationist This floating carpark will take for its own purpose part of the precious sea way of our sacred bay and encroach on the main public access way to our Island. This gateway is constantly under strain with the transport of goods, services and people to our beautiful piece of paradise Waiheke Island, of Tikapa Moana, Hauraki Gulf. 24. The suggestion that the marina is somehow Tika Appropriate here, because it copies the type of structures and uses that have grown to service our gateway is wrong. They are not comparable at all. The wharf represents the very purpose and wairua of Matiatia. It expresses the essence of this Bay and its purpose for the people of Waiheke as it has for generations. This marina a floating car park - expresses nothing consistent with this place and its purpose. It offends this place. CONCLUSION 25. I as one of many I declare this as outright Pakanga Warfare and as so declared will make my stand alongside the many Iwi, Hapu, Whanau and community on the foreshore of Matiatia to the world! As the bones of many of whom I am of rest there, so Matiatia will be Turangawaewae for me. Huhana Davis 28 July 2014

7 6 ATTACHMENT A