Press Release: Stop pirates coming ashore on Aotea Great Barrier Island

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Press Release:Stop pirates coming ashore on Aotea Great Barrier Island

Ngāti Rehua Ngāti Wai ki Aotea remained concerned by the ‘boaties’ still visibly inbound to our motu, Aotea, Great Barrier Island. Their actions of coming ashore – as if enjoying a casual summer break “ not a global pandemic lockdown is terribly alarming for our people who fall into the most vulnerable and high risk demographic.

Additionally, these ‘out of town boaties’ or ‘pirates’, as they’re now referred to, are straining our already limited freight services that transport essential goods. Local residents are witnessing this, and are increasingly angered at the selfish nature of this behaviour. One local comments, “I saw 14 banana boxes of food loaded into one boat!” This behaviour adversely impacts on our community receiving their own essential foodstuffs. This has highlighted the absolute necessity for our people to be able to fish and gather kaimoana for sustenance. One local stated, “this is not recreational fishing, this is the basic provision of food for our iwi and hapū”.

Ngāti Rehua Ngāti Wai ki Aotea are ‘people of the sea’ a seafaring people who have fished these waters mai rano. They implement their tikanga of reciprocity, mana, tapu and whakapapa and subsequently, practice sustainability whilst on the moana.

Finally, as our on island police have divulged, they are powerless. We urgently and passionately ask the Navy to step in and patrol our waters from these continued lockdown breaches and resource strains.

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