November 02, 2016
Echoes of Standing Rock in Ihumatao stonefields
Manurewa MP Louisa Wall says attempts by the Standing Rock Sioux to stop te Dakota Access Pipeline destroying their sacred sites and water sources has echoes in a land conflict in south Auckland.
Maori have been expressing their solidarity with the protests in North Dakota in a variety of ways.
Ms Wall says the situation at Ihumatao in Mangere, where Fletcher Residential wants to build more than 400 homes on an ancient habitation site, is marked by a similar lack of engagement with tangata whenua and a refusal to acknowledge their interests and values.
"What’s happening over in North Dakota with Standing Rock is happening in our own back yard so I want to acknowledge our whanau in Aotearoa are trying to protect our burial sites in Ihumatao so we need to stand in solidarity not only with our whanau across the oceans but also here in Aotearoa," she says.
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