December 21, 2021
Aotea court battles drain on resources
Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea is finishing the year still looking for the money it needs to protect the seas around Aotea Great Barrier from dumping and pollution.
Environmentalist and iwi member Kelly Klink from Protect Aotea says this year it has been in court for a judicial review of non-notified dumping off the island, an appeal of the Resource Management Act consents for dredging and an appeal to be allowed to make that appeal.
She says it harks back to what the ancestors endured fighting for their whenua in the Native Land Court.
“We’ve spent $50,632 this year just on lawyers, that’s not to me, that’s not to anyone else, it’s straight to the lawyers and straight to the court. We sat in the Native Land Court. Our people went to fight, to say this is our whenua, and to pay for it they had to sell the land and it happened to Ngāti Rehua, we lost a whole island,” Ms Klink says.
She says there is no money available for Māori to fight for their rights.