One of Aotearoa’s most treasured islands has taken another significant step towards international recognition, with Te Hauturu-o-Toi / Little Barrier Island included on New Zealand’s UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.
Ngāti Manuhiri has welcomed the development, describing it as an important acknowledgement of the island’s extraordinary environmental, cultural and historical significance.
Located in the Hauraki Gulf, Te Hauturu-o-Toi is more than a conservation sanctuary. It is an ancestral landscape and living taonga for Ngāti Manuhiri, carrying deep whakapapa connections to Toi Te Huatahi and the wider waters of Tīkapa Moana / Te Moananui-a-Toi.
The pest-free island is internationally significant for biodiversity, providing a protected habitat for hundreds of native plant species alongside an extraordinary range of indigenous birds, reptiles and bats.
Its conservation importance has long been recognised, but Ngāti Manuhiri says any future World Heritage recognition must go beyond the island’s ecological achievements.
The iwi wants its whakapapa, mātauranga, tikanga, history and responsibilities as kaitiaki to be central to how Te Hauturu-o-Toi is understood, protected and represented internationally.
Ngāti Manuhiri Chief Executive Nicola Rata-MacDonald says the ultimate objective is to protect the mauri of Hauturu, honour its ancestral stories and ensure its biodiversity continues to flourish for future generations.
Inclusion on New Zealand’s World Heritage Tentative List is an important preliminary step, but it does not mean the island has already secured UNESCO World Heritage status.
A formal nomination and international assessment process would still be required before any decision on inscription could be made.
The development also raises important questions about how Indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage are incorporated into international conservation frameworks, particularly where iwi have maintained generations of connection and responsibility to ancestral landscapes.
For Ngāti Manuhiri, the opportunity is not simply about gaining another international designation. It is about ensuring the island’s identity, cultural significance and ecological future are recognised together.
Radio Waatea is examining what the development means for Ngāti Manuhiri, how iwi mātauranga and tikanga could shape the process, and what World Heritage recognition might ultimately deliver for the long-term protection of Te Hauturu-o-Toi.
At the heart of the kaupapa is a simple but powerful objective: protecting the mauri of Hauturu while ensuring its stories, whakapapa and extraordinary biodiversity endure for generations to come.
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