The three commissioners had patiently sat through a long day of hearings at the Claris Social Club, but had not lost their sense of humour. "Another one of your 'Good Questions'?, the right honourable Peter Salmon mocked his colleague, David Shand, to laughter from the audience. "Well then it is time to close this hearing of the Commission of Inquiry on the future governance of Auckland." And as he thanked the submitters who had come to explain and expand on their submissions, Peter Salmon chose to sum up his impression of the day with two ideas that did not seem immediately obvious. "I thought that the presentations we heard today reflected a sense of kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga," he said.

The natural values of the island are appreciated by residents and visitors alike and that was certainly expressed. Submitters confessed to being conservation minded themselves in their own ways, even if not necessarily in the same style than government agencies who will seek to "lock it up and prohibit any change". But the term kaitiakitanga, typically translated inadequately as guardianship, does not only describe humans looking after nature, but captures a larger sense of responsibility. "We are small, but we are precious," was one statement that drew attention to what also deserved guardianship. "We are all just like an extended family," another islander had said.

Peter Salmon had been listening with attention to many different definitions of our unique identity. "You don't come to live on this island, you commit to it," he was told. Perhaps he sought to recognise that claim by not labelling it as a demand for privileges, but to recognise a sense of responsibility for each other. As what he had heard people try to express. Or at least a desire to recognise a quality that is fundamental to this place and its people.

That's a quality that does not easily fit into a list of land unit categories assigned from aerial photographs. There is no need to delve into the many meanings that the term of kaitiakitanga can hold for tangata whenua, but simply look for the sense of responsibility and mana that was expressed by the submitters and that Peter Salmon noted. The website kaitiakitanga.net does not provide a bureaucratic definition but instead tells the same kind of stories that we heard during the hearings: About an identity tied to the land, about a sense of belonging and about a way of looking at the world that holds a community together, “so they move as one, like a shoal”.

Manaakitanga is also a term that means more than just to show respect or be hospitable to. Manaakitanga seeks common ground upon which an affinity and sense of sharing and respect can grow. It is a deep-rooted concept in Maori culture. If Peter Salmon felt that this had been expressed then perhaps he was just referring to the home made scones he was offered. But if he had listened carefully, then he would have also heard a desire to share this precious identity - to open this extended family to those that are ready to commit to the island. I would like to think that that is what he wanted to say.

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