What is happening up at the lake?
3 February 2020
Tuhoe say they would never deny anyone — Maori or Pakeha — access to Lake Waikaremoana but as kaitiaki (guardians) of Te Urewera they will make sure their land is treated with respect.
This reassurance comes after a contentious summer season where two families, who were regulars at the lake, were asked to leave their freedom camping spots, and boat users were told not to drink alcohol on the lake.
A camper of more than 40 years was at the freedom camping area known as Boatills with his family over the New Year period.
They were asked to leave, which they did, and Boatills has now been closed to freedom campers.
The camper was philosophical about it.
“There's no point getting staunch about it. It's their land and we want to work with them going forward. We will stay at the chalets in the future and go camping at home.”
Tuhoe chief executive Kirsti Luke said the name Boatills was not familiar to them. The area is known to Tuhoe as Paenerua. It sits underneath Panekire Mountain — their ancestral maunga.
Ms Luke said to eat and defecate in this area had “long been offensive to the people of Urewera”.
Ms Luke said for generations they had put up with campers cutting down trees at the spot and making long drops.
She believed these “offences” were not intended and it would take time to repair the relationships.
Ms Luke said on New Year's Eve she went to see for herself the freedom camping at Boatills.
“I saw pits being dug for a toilet — my team removed them — and there were trees being cut down for tents.
“We explained to people it was abuse of Te Urewera and the land and not the experience or connection we support or want to see happen.
“That is not at all how we take responsibility or how we take care of our land. We asked these people to leave.
“What has gotten confused I think is that people have broad-brushed that we have become anti freedom camping. That is not the case.
“We have had no difficulty with campers from Rosie Bay to Oranihikoia.
“People were concerned that we were not going to allow them to be there. We would never deny access to the lake to the public.
“We never saw their anxiety and they never saw ours. It was equally shared.
“Just as we were taking offence at the way some of them were using the lake, they were equally horrified they would not be able to raise their grandchildren and children at the lake. We would never act that way.”
A meeting between Tuhoe, police and the Waikaremoana Boat Owners Association revealed some of its members were shocked to hear that Boatills had any kind of ancestral link and camping actions there had caused offence to Tuhoe.
“We could not believe either that in 60 to 70 years how that could not have been communicated. These are the things that have been inherited.
“There has not been a recognition of a Tuhoe presence there even though we have been walking the same road.”
A unique relationship was granted to Tuhoe during a Crown Treaty settlement in 2014. Te Urewera became a legal entity with all the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of a legal person — a first in the world.
Tuhoe have a management plan called Te Kawa o Te Urewera, which governs how they will operate at Te Urewera.
Tuhoe and the Department of Conservation agreed to share the day-to-day management between them.
However, not everyone is in agreement. Some say methods being used by Tuhoe are “intimidating”.
A Gisborne woman, who did not want to be named out of fear of repercussions, recounted an experience she and her family had at Lake Waikaremoana two summers ago while they were sleeping on their boat.
“In the middle of the night, a guy came on a kayak and started yelling to us ‘Tuhoe, Tuhoe'.
“We didn't know what was happening. We popped our heads out of our boat and were told we were not allowed to camp there, that we had to leave and a bunch of angry guys were observing us from the hill.
“My husband was so scared and he's not the kind of guy to get scared.”
Her husband was born and raised in Gisborne and had gone to the lake with his family and friends for years.
In the pitch black, the woman said they took themselves on their boat to the other side of the lake.
“The general feeling is that you are not welcome,” she said.
“What is going to happen if we allow this kind of intimidation? This is a huge lake, we all love it and we have been going there for years.”
Ms Luke said they were not aware of this incident but it would have the action of an individual, not the iwi.
“It is unfair to hold the iwi accountable for an individual's actions. This is often the misunderstanding that causes unnecessary racial tension.”
On January 8, a Gisborne man took some Chinese tourists on his boat to fish at Lake Waikaremoana. For five hours they saw only one other boat on the lake, a water taxi operated by Tuhoe.
“Usually, there were about 40 or 50 boats out on the lake at that time of year, he said.
Ms Luke said there had not been a significant decrease in the numbers visiting the lake this summer.
She confirmed the continuation of freedom camping spots at Makau, Te Taita a Makoro, Oranihikoia and Awaawarua (Rosie Bay).
The issue of alcohol on boats was safety, she said.
Ms Luke said last summer season there were several boating events coming up to “the Roar (deer hunting season” when people brought copious amount of alcohol on to boats, and combined that with guns.
“We couldn't not do something,” she said.
“My staff have never ed the boat of another person and have never confiscated alcohol.
“Because I have operational responsibility I am more than capable of doing that but Tuhoe wants to design a whole new approach of enforcement.”
Tuhoe wanted to enforce good behaviour and not focus on bad behaviour, she said.
“We don't want to be the police. We leave bad behaviour to the police and they are clear how offences of Te Urewera work.
“It is illegal to cut down trees, or take a plant, and I do not need bylaws.
“I have enough of the authority, including the ability to trespass people who just aren't going to get it.”
Asked to comment on the Tuhoe situation, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage said in a statement: “Under the Te Urewera Settlement Act, the Te Urewera Board was established to govern Te Urewera and Tuhoetana is one of the guiding principles of that. The Government supports Tuhoe in regard to their approach to management of the foreshore of Waikaremoana.”
