Newspaper Article 2008 – Row brews over using explosives in wetland

Row brews over using explosives in wetland

MARTY SHARPE

PLANS to enhance a Hawke’s Bay wetland may be scuttled by the Historic Places Trust, which fears the Maori “spirituality” of the area may be disturbed – despite the local hapu approving the plans.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has gained resource consent approval to use explosives to create open areas in the Pekapeka wetland, on State Highway 2 south of Hastings, but the trust plans to appeal against the decision.

The council has spent more than $600,000 in the past nine years eradicating pest plant species and planting natives in the 90.7-hectare (224-acre) wetland, which is home to many different bird species, including bitterns, swans, herons and shags.   Experts have told the council the wetland’s ecosystem would be improved if it had more open areas.   The wetland is too wide to use excavators, so the council planned to use explosives to create 40 open areas during the next 10 years.

Hapu Ngati Ngare Ngare, represented by Waa Harris, supports the council’s use of explosives, and hearings commissioner Hugh Hamilton granted consent in October.

“If it were not for the evidence of Mrs Harris and the unqualified support from her hapu, this part of my decision would probably come down in favour of protecting the historic heritage of the wetland… by not approving the use of explosives,” Mr Hamilton said in his decision.

Mrs Harris wanted the wetland restored to a condition that would support wildlife.

The wetland was traversed by the highway and a railway line, and demolition debris had been dumped there in the past, she said.

“Its still an important place to us after all that, and it always will be. A bit of dynamite won’t change that.”

She said though the wetland contained three pa sites, ancestors had left no evidence – oral or otherwise – that there were artifacts or taonga there, and Maori never mixed taonga with food.

But the Historic Places Trust is not convinced, and intends to appeal against Mr Hamilton’s decision in the Environment Court.

The trust’s central region general manager, Ann Neill, said there might be buried waka that could be destroyed by explosives, but the trust’s main concerns were not so much around tangible Maori values.

“They’re [the concerns] more around spiritual and intangible grounds. This was not only a very important source of food for Maori, it was also a site of major battles, so spiritually for Maori this is a waahi tapu area.

“For Maori it’s more about the intangibles and the offensiveness of explosives being used in a spiritual area,” Ms Neill said.

Ngati Ngare Ngare was just one hapu with an interest in the wetland, and other hapu who did not make a submission were supporting the trust’s appeal, she said.

Photo caption – Let it blow: Waa Harris says the wetland is ‘still and important place to us, and it always will be. A bit of dynamite won’t change that’.   Picture: MARTY SHARPE