Human Uses of the West Coast Marine and Coastal Environment

4.2 Ngai Tahu Customary Uses and Kaitiakitanga

On the West Coast, concerns of the tangata whenua include the protection of the mana associated with land and sea and the protection of taonga (treasures) such as pounamu, pingao and kaimoana.
The whole of the coastal area offered a bounty of mahinga kai resources. Mahinga kai can be literally translated as “food-works” and includes not only resources but the places where such resources were harvested. Mahinga kai resources include:

a range of kaimoana (sea food);
sea fishing, eeling and the harvesting of other freshwater fish in lagoons and rivers;
marine mammals providing whale meat and seal pups;
waterfowl, sea bird egg gathering and forest birds; and
a variety of plant resources, including harakeke (flax), pingao and ti kouka (cabbage tree).

The coast was also a major highway and trade route, particularly in areas where travel by land was difficult. Travel on the sea between settlements and hapü (sub-tribal groups) was common, with a variety of different forms of waka (canoe), including southern waka hunua (double hulled canoe). Hence, numerous tauranga waka (places where waka were launched) appear up and down the coast and wherever there is a tauranga waka located there is likely to be a kainga (settlement), fishing ground, kaimoana resource with a sea trail that links to a land trail and/or a mahinga kai resource.

The traditional mobile lifestyle of the people led to their dependence on the resources of the coast. The tipuna had a huge knowledge of the coastal environment and weather patterns, passed from generation to generation. Their knowledge continues to be held by whanau and hapu and is regarded as a taonga.

Other key cultural values within the coastal marine area include;

Wahi tapu/taonga (sacred sites/treasures) – such as urupa (burial sites);
Pa/Kainga – such as Okahu Pa at Neils Beach and the Heaphy and Buller River mouth sites
Tauranga Waka – places where waka were launched and landed, such as Jackson Bay/ Okahu and Tauranga Bay;
Ara – trails such as those used when early Maori travelled to Anita Bay to gather precious tangiwai (a type of pounamu jade);
Mahinga Maataitai – fishing grounds;
Reefs and Islands – very important mahinga kai; also act as markers (or pou) providing directions to fishing grounds or trails; and
Kai moana – all manner of species of fish, shell-fish and marine mammals.

The connection of Maori to the West Coast and the marine environment is described in more detail by numerous publications2.

The ability to access and use mahinga kai sites and resources has a major impact on the ability of Poutini Ngai Tahu (people of West Coast (Tai Poutini) Ngai Tahu descent) to relate to each other and to provide for themselves culturally, economically and socially. Fundamentally, Poutini Ngai Tahu want to be able to continue to sustain themselves from mahinga kai resources. Examples of current customary use and access requirements include: the gathering of pïngao from coastal dunes for weaving and for tukutuku panels; harakeke for weaving; and tuna (eel) and whitebait harvesting.

Kaitiaki is derived from the verb ‘tiaki’ which means “to guard, protect, to keep, to watch and to wait for”. To be a kaitiaki is an extremely important responsibility. To Poutini Ngai Tahu, Kaitiakitanga is not a passive custodianship, nor is it simply the exercise of traditional property rights. Instead, it entails an active exercise of power in a manner beneficial to the resource.

The Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act lists and gives recognition to a number of taonga species and significant sites (e.g. topuni, nohoanga) on the West Coast. Taonga species occurring within or adjacent to the coastal marine area are listed in Appendix 5, and particular sites are mentioned in the segments of Chapter 5.

2 e.g. Anderson 1998, Waitangi Tribunal 1992, Beattie 1920, Hooker 1986, Madgwick 1992
3 Waitangi Tribunal 1992