Vote Castlecliff
Question 10: Candidate Response
What Our Candidates are Telling Us.
Question 10: How do you see Tupua te Kawa practised from your perspective?
James Newell: The river should be managed in such a way that everyone in the community can benefit from it.
Charlotte Melser: Any and all decisions based around the Awa must include absolute consideration of Tupua te Kawa so ensure that the wellbeing of the Awa is upheld.
Jenny Duncan: Tupua te Kawa are the values under which all interaction with Te Awa Tupua, the Whanganui Awa. The Te Puwaha project, four entities with some govt funding, rebuilding and developing the north mole port area, follow these values. The group Te Mata Puau is the iwi and community-based group that ensures that the values, Tupua te Kawa, are at the forefront when decisions are made. This is a wonderful new way of working together. Rather than copy and paste here, a quick google of Tupua te Kawa will provide a really clear explanation of each of the 3 values (kawa).
Julian Bailey (Rural Community Board - Kaitoke subdivision): I’m a champion of clean water. I’m appalled with Wadable as opposed to Swimmable designation, as we all should be. The Awa is interconnected, mess with it anywhere and we pay the price, evidenced by the silting. My perspective, I’m Iwi, I am the River.
Rory Smith: I think the principles of Tupua Te Kawa are very clear. To be practised properly we need genuine partnership between Iwi and the District Council. Iwi will guide us. It is not optional. It is laid out very clearly in the Te Awa Tupua Settlement 2017 and will be the bedrock of the whole of river strategy “Te Heke Ngahuru” which is due for release for consultation by the end of this year.
Alan Taylor - Horizons-Whanganui Constituency: The most challenging question of all. Answering from a Horizons perspective, this is core to the sustainability of our District and Region. All environmental phenomena, including human behaviour, are integral in their action and reaction. Nothing can be done without impacting on other parts of our world. Hence treating the Awa and all things that link to it deserve the utmost respect. To survive in a viable world we have to acknowledge what and how our human activities are changing this world. We simply have to protect it for our physical and economic wellbeing. This is where the work of the Whanganui River Enhancement Trust and Horizons Sustainable Land Use Initiative has sought and achieved common beneficial outcomes. Further, biodiversity protection (pest management being part of that), Climate Change recognition, and flood prevention measure must all continue to benefit all that the Awa is. As with people, the key word is ‘respect’ for who and what the Whanganui River is and, what to some may seem metaphysical, what the whole of the River desires.
Glenda Brown: The recognition of the river and the people together, i.e. not separated, is a beautiful picture of how community should be – of how community should operate. Valuing the elements of the river and people, how they work together, looking after, treasuring and protecting are the very core elements of what makes a successful community. Protecting the waterways is important and a management plan with Iwi, Horizons and WDC working together is vital to keep the plan sustainable and effective.
Scott Phillips: I see it more as a way to approach things and to plan as opposed to a specific practice. To understand the special position that Iwi hold, and factor that into decision making.
Daniel (DC) Harding: Tupua Te Kawa takes a holistic approach and uses te ao Maori as a framework. As indigenous people of Aotearoa/New Zealand – we understand that everything holds a whakapapa. A whakapapa brings people, places, things, geographic entities etc together. Nothing is seen in isolation – for everything holds a whakapapa. Therefore, as decisions are made around Te Awa Tupua, it’s important that we look at what consequences will look like for the whole ecosystem of our awa. This decision-making space can be wrapped up in the following whakatauki “E rere kau mai te awa nui nei, Mai i te kāhui maunga ki Tangaroa, Ko au te awa, Ko te awa ko au.“
Ross Fallen: To quote: a spiritual and physical entity that supports and sustains both the life and natural resources within the Whanganui River and the health and well-being of the iwi, hapū, and other communities of the River.’ In practical terms for me, we live alongside the awa and the ocean that receives their waters. Whatever I take down, I bring back, and others’ leftovers. I resist any changes unless there is consultation. Perhaps there is much more I can do but it is a waka, a journey of discovery, of openness, not resistance. The well-being of community means engagement, not passive notice. Seriously, in regard to iwi and hapu, we have barely scratched the surface of understanding, engagement, protocols and partnership, and connecting with the other communities here.
David Cotton - Horizons, Whanganui Constituency: I am still in the early learning stages and believe any councillor representing the community needs to understand how the individual community groups wish to engage, along with understanding our legal responsibilities.
Andrew Tripe: The values which represent Te Awa Tupua will firstly require education for all our community as well as visitors. It is only with education that our community will understand and therefore honour the essence of Te Awa Tupua.
Kate Joblin: That’s a big question and we are in the early days of understanding what it means and will look like in the years to come. I hope that the “personhood” of the awa will remind us of the importance of its health and well-being and always be central to our actions and decisions.
Helen Craig: We all have to understand that what we throw away, put into and onto the soil, and into our drains and waterways affect the health of our river and sea. We each have to take personal responsibility to maintain a healthy environment.
Roy Brown: We all have a responsibility to look after our environment and to care for it to ensure it lasts for generations to come.
Blair Jones: I believe water is a human right and it should be clean, in this climate age we find ourselves in, we must utilise it wisely, catch it wisely and distribute its use evenly just as a work day is handled pragmatically, at times this may mean conservation as in days off and growing food stocks that aim to heal its wairoa and be a realistic source for people who live upon its river banks or near it and respect everyone's common goal that it should remain worthwhile to the people of the area and Aotearoa. Rubbish should be kept away from it as much as possible which seems obvious and factories should do more in my opinion to stop wastewater from being wasteful. This is a climate age and it appears it may be time; let the earth or awa feed you and work with for humanity survival. I enjoy it is kept company and we as separate entities as I see it; by its utilisation. Nga Mihi noa, don’t be a total stranger… the story continues
Rodd Trott: Ensure that our communities of river users observe best environmental practices and to advocate for cooperation in order to protect the mana of the Awa.
Michael Law: The practices should be for all Whanganui people to understand and be part of. Bringing the catchment region into how we treat our river would mean that we protect, manage and become guardians for our tamarikis future.
Charlie Anderson: I think it high time the river is respected, considered and protected in the very way stated in the document. However, along with many others, I struggle with the alignment of a legal person. The human being is the most dangerous animal on the planet. The river deserves better, although I am in no way a spiritual person, giving it a god like status would engender more support in my view. Gerard Albert wrote a superb piece recently explaining the reasons around the rivers status.
Philippa Baker-Hogan: I have spent years of my life rowing on our Awa, always valued and respected it. I look forward to ‘Te Heke Ngahuru’, the whole of river strategy being released and our community with Iwi working with Council to help us all understand, care for and benefit from the unique and special legal status of Te Awa Tupua.
Dan Jackson: The Whanganui River is what makes Whanganui what it is. We are all here because of the river in some way or another. We need to protect it and manage the way it is used so that its health is continuously improved. I’m a firm believer in the value of coastal shipping as the Anatoki has proved. I would like to see our port provide stable employment and opportunity for our Whanganui people. When I was a kid we could not eat the fish from the river and it was often possible to see waste floating down the river or washing back onto the beaches. We have come a long way since then and I would like to ensure we do not lose that momentum.
Phillip (Bear) Rewiti: I am the river, the river is me.
Allan Wrigglesworth - Horizons, Whanganui Constituency: I would like to see less sediment billowing out to sea from our awa every time it rains.
Hamish McDouall: The four kawa – or innate values – have been enshrined in law and must be upheld. The relevance to Castlecliff is that the community needs to be engaged with before anything affecting the river takes place and that the health and well-being of the river is paramount. I have been very proud of my work on Te Puwaha, the port project, is the first project to embrace the kawa from the very start.
James Barron: I grew up on a farm where my great grandfather is buried and four generations of my extended family live today and will live tomorrow. So although pakeha I find the principle of walking on & with the whenua and making intergenerational decisions is not a strange thing. Staff will tell you I’m uniquely insistent about walking in, under, through and over any property we need to make decisions on be it heritage, ports, sports or bare land. I see my own values articulated eloquently in Tupua te Kawa.