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Download AudioA member of the Ngāti Pāoa group camped alongside a marina development at Waiheke says the voice of the iwi still hasn’t been heard in the planning process.
Ngā Uri o Ngāti Pāoa supported by Ngāti Pāoa Trust Board are the last ones standing at Pūtiki Bay after the community group Save Kennedy Point reached a settlement with the developer after it was threatened with costs of up to $250,000 for its Environment Court challenge.
Emily Maia Weiss says by observing the colony of Kororā or little blue penguins living in the breakwater the group is increasing its knowledge of the bay and the effects of the development on the endangered manu.
"It's really easy to get pulled into the back and forth of what the developer is saying about the kororā like 'this isn't too loud,' or 'this light isn't too much in their burrows,' or 'these buoys give them enough space to get past if they want to,' but the bigger picture is the face we have a tangata here, our whanaunga, we have an emblem of life in that bay and it's beautiful. Their wellbeing needs to be privileged and out at the forefront," she says.
More than 10,000 people have signed a petition calling on Auckland Council to review the resource consent because it failed to consider the Ngāti Pāoa perspective.
The previous leadership of the Ngāti Pāoa Iwi Trust signed off on the development.
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