Hapū submission: Heritage Areas Public Consultation – Far North District Council (October 2021)
- Sep 30, 2021
- 2 min read
This submission was made in October 2021 by Professor Merata Kawharu (Ngāti Rāhiri, Ngāti Kawa) in response to the Far North District Council's public consultation on heritage areas under the proposed District Plan. It offers critical analysis of how the plan conceptualises and maps heritage across the Far North, and makes practical recommendations for strengthening Māori participation and protection.
The submission's central argument is that dividing the region into discrete heritage areas defined by road boundaries is fundamentally at odds with a Māori worldview. It proposes instead that heritage areas be redrawn to reflect contiguous ancestral landscapes — using natural features such as waterways and prominent landmarks — with pre-European Māori heritage as the foundational layer upon which later historical periods are mapped. The current approach, the submission notes, produces gaps that are particularly ironic given the region's bicultural history: Waitangi itself is among the significant areas left out.
Specific policy provisions are identified as requiring strengthening, including rules around excavation near Pouerua (a site of significance to Ngāpuhi and specifically to Ngāti Rāhiri, Ngāti Kawa and neighbouring hapū kaitiaki of Oromahoe marae), and policies on heritage site management and activities near sites of significance to Māori — where "having regard to consultation" is identified as too weak to produce meaningful outcomes.
The submission also calls for climate change mitigation and adaptation planning to be incorporated into heritage protection methods, alongside dedicated funding to support hapū participation in both council heritage planning and the development of hapū environmental management plans.
For Project Kāinga, this document offers a concise example of hapū-led engagement with local government heritage and planning processes, with direct connections to the Waitangi catchment communities central to the project's work.
