Ihumatao

By the mid 1840's the crown had bought several million acres surrounding the Manukau Harbour and down through the Waikato, the land upon which the village of Ihumatao stands was part of that.

In 1846 during the Northern wars, it was thought that Hone Heke may invade Auckland from the rear using the Manukau harbour. Te Wherowhero was at the time living at Awhitu on the Manukau. George Grey asked Te Wherowhero to place Auckland under his Mana to preclude a NgaPuhi attack. Grey then had a cottage built for TeWherowhero in the Auckland Domain.

On 16th April 1849 Te Wherowhero and 80 Ngati Mahuta families were settled on 480 acres of Government land at Ihumatao. Each person received 1 acre for dwelling and 5 acres for cultivation. After 7 years this land would become their freehold property, provided they helped defend Auckland should the need arise.

In 1858 Te Wherowhero was crowned King of Huntly, and in 1864 decided to go to war against the British, the 480 acres at Ihumatao was included in the 1863 Settlements Act confiscations.

I can only assume that because it was an isolated block of land that it wasn't included on the above map. (REF: Whatiwhaihoe. The Waikato Raupatu claim.2001)

By Don Jacobs > https://tinyurl.com/y3jt5cdv

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PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS UNDER THREAT

The land at the centre of the dispute on the Ihumatao Peninsula overlooking the Manukau Harbour has had a chequered history.

Since being disposed of by the Crown following tribal rebellions in the 1860s it was privately owned and run as a farm. But in the late 1990s, the Manukau City Council, Auckland Regional Authority and Department of Conservation wanted 100 hectares of the surrounding area for the Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve. The owners of the farm agreed that 21ha could be used for that purpose.

However, in 2009, when the Council proposed changing the zoning to capture the rest of the farm, the family objected and applied for the zoning to be changed to business development instead. The Council rejected their proposal, so they appealed to the Environment Court, which found in their favour, approving the land for future development.

The Council then offered to buy the land for a fraction of what it was worth, so the family refused to sell. Then, in 2014 after the Super City was formed, the Government and the Auckland Council designated 32ha of the land as a Special Housing Area.

In 2016 Fletcher Building bought the land to build 480 houses, after consulting with the local iwi Te Kawerau a Maki. In return for supporting their consent, the iwi’s Settlement Trust extracted generous concessions from Fletchers, including the return of a quarter of the land and 40 of the houses!

With tribal leaders now claiming that the land rights activists are disrespecting their elders by refusing to leave the site, the protest action is putting those substantial benefits at risk.

The well-funded protest action began three years ago when Fletchers bought the land. At the time, protest leader, Pania Newton, had just graduated as a lawyer and was spending a gap year working for her community. A top scholar at her Mangere Maori immersion school, she appears to have been radicalised at a young age: “When I was 9, I wrote in a time capsule at school that I wanted to be a lawyer when I grew up, to fight for Maori rights and for my family”.

Saving Ihumatao became her mission, and the ‘Save Our Unique Landscape’ (SOUL) campaign began.

Inspired by the Maori Sovereignty and Indigenous Rights movements, Pania Newton deliberately defied her uncle Te Warena Taua – the chairman of the iwi’s Settlement Trust that had approved Fletchers’ development – by starting the protest. He had asked her not to go ahead as he didn’t want her to jeopardise the lucrative arrangement they had negotiated.

The occupation began in November 2016 when tents, caravans, and makeshift shelters were erected by the side of the road......

https://www.nzcpr.com/private-property-rights-under-threat/