A Horowhenua iwi says its involvement with a company looking to build a golf course on wahi tapu has been symbolic, while some of the company’s actions involve colonization.
But the company behind the proposal says it acted in good faith to improve the area’s biodiversity and ensure the country’s history was recognized.
Xero co-founder and avid golfer Hamish Edwards, through his company Grenadier Ltd, wants to turn farmland next to the River Ōhau into an 18-hole links course.
The track, if built as proposed, could potentially rank in the world’s top 100.
However, the country is home to Tirotiro Whetū, a wahi tapu and well-known place of habitation for tangata whenua.
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Kaitiaki has spoken of the consequences people have suffered from ignoring the tapu nature of the whenua, which includes illness and death.
Edwards and his company had many discussions with Ngāti Kikopiri, who has his marae on the same road as the land on which the track would be built, before a resource consent hearing in May.
There were also discussions with Muaūpoko, with the two sides agreeing in June that any cultural impact of the course would be less than minor.
Regional Council of Horizons
An early concept drawing of some plans for the Douglas Links golf course, including on-site accommodation and a driving range.
Grenadier and Ngāti Tukorehe, who also included Tirotiro Whetū, had the most conversations after the hearing.
Several representatives of Ngāti Tukorehe told the hearing how important the whenua was, especially the area at the mouth of the Ōhau River where there would be one course hole.
The hearing ended with Grenadier’s commitment to reflect on what had been brought up and to continue discussions with various IWI.
In a letter to the hearing commissioners published online in June, Tina Wilson, chairman of the Te Iwi o Ngāti Tukorehe Trust, said the meetings after the hearing were professional and respectful, but ultimately resulted in poor engagement.
Changes that Ngāti Tukorehe wanted, including excluding Shooting Whetū from the course design, were considered non-negotiable by Grenadier.
Greandier’s engagement was “symbolic” and left Ngāti Tukorehe with a deep sense of sadness and anger.
“It was another trampling of our iwi-mana.”
Ngāti Tukorehe’s job as kaitiaki was to ensure that people entered the rohe in spiritually, physically and culturally safe ways, but minimizing their values gave them no assurance that they could do so, Wilson said.
There was also frustration with Grenadier’s decision to partner extensively with other iwis and using the term “pirmus inter parses” – first among equals – to justify this.
That sapped Ngāti Tukorehe’s mana and showed a lack of understanding of an important Māoritanga concept that “no one is more important than all of us,” Wilson said.
Delivered/Lawrie Cairns
The rohe of Ngāti Tukorehe includes the area around the mouth of the Ōhau River, pictured below left, which is also the proposed site for a golf course.
It was “the colonizer’s last act” to rename after something or someone important to them.
Edwards related that the permission Dgoulas heard was the name given to the firstborn son in each generation of his family, like his father, although the land would still be Ōhau.
But Wilson said the renaming was “an act that once again heartlessly tramples the mana of others for self-recognition and recognition.”
In response to Wilson’s letter, Grenadier’s counsel John Maassen said the company acted on advice and handled tangata positively.
That was evident from Muaūpoko’s late submission to the consent process that was not ruled out, but that Edwards instead took part in face-to-face consultations to address their values, Maassen said.
Grenadier was not entirely clear about Ngāti Tukorehe’s approach, as a prehearing hui at their marae seemed generally positive.
“The ideological filters of some of the current representatives of Ngāti Tukorohe are a strong story of oppression along racial lines,” Maassen said.
“That has not proved to be a good basis for a rational discourse on resource management.”
Grenadier’s position was not based on colonization, but on wanting to improve the area’s biodiversity and consulting with iwi to ensure their history was recognized, Maassen said.
Hearing Commissioner Christine Foster officially closed the hearing in June and said a decision would be released in under a minute by mid-July.