October 16, 2020
Kaipara clean up leaves swamp hapu fuming
Hapū from the upper Kaipara catchment are concerned they have been left out of a major initiative to clean up the awa.
Last week Kaipara uri signed a memorandum of understanding on the remediation plan with the crown and local councils, which will be seeded with $100 million from COVID recovery funds.
Delaraine Armstrong from Ngā Kaitiaki o Ngā Wai Māori says her group represents hapū from Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Hine and others around Mangakāhia and the Hikurangi Swamp north of Whangārei, where the bulk of the sediment flowing into the harbour comes from.
But she says they’re not included in the memorandum.
"The point at which Kaipara uri recognised it was the whole catchment they needed to look at, that was the point they needed to acknowledge they needed to include us in the kōrerō. We have been excluded from the conversation all the way through," she says.
Delaraine Armstrong says Ngā Kaitiaki o Ngā Wai Māori has been developing its own research and action programme.
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