Tauranga Māori emphasised the depth and intimacy of people’s association with the harbour. They also emphasised the wide-ranging nature of that association: not only was it an important source of food but it offered transport routes and places to play.⁴³ And then there was the spiritual dimension, as Te Awanuiarangi Black, on behalf of Ngāti Hē, described in the passage already quoted at the head of this chapter:

The Rangataua estuary is the life blood of our people, 'ngā wai koiora', that courses through our veins: its tributaries the Waitao, Kaitimako, Omatata, Otamarua, Te Waiū and Te Awanui are the veins that supply it, and thus us with life giving nutrients - life itself... all living breathing features of our ancestral landscape⁴⁴

At a personal level, many witnesses described how such places had played integral parts in their lives. Te Aroha Luttenberger, of Ngāi Te Ahi, for example, recalled:

the Waimapu Estuary was also very much part of our universe. We knew every bit of it. We knew where the deep mud patches were, where the channel was in full tide, the safe places to swim, where to get the titiko, pipi, tuangi, tio and baby koura for bait.⁴⁵

Similarly, Iria Friconnet Stokes of Ngāti Kuku told us: ‘Kaimoana was our lunch every day. The sea fed us and we swam in it all day. As my great great grandfather said - the sea was just an extension of our garden.’⁴⁶

Stokes refers to the famous speech made by Taiaho Hori Ngatai to John Ballance, the Minister of Native Affairs, in 1885. That speech deserves to be quoted at length here, because it precisely captures the character and significance of Māori traditional rights to the foreshore and its fisheries, and the nature of the rangatiratanga protected by the Treaty:

Now, with regard to the land below high-water mark immediately in front of where I live, I consider that that is part and parcel of my own land … part of my own garden. From time immemorial I have had this land, and had authority over all the food in the sea.... I am now speaking of the fishing-grounds inside the Tauranga Harbour. My mana over these places has never been taken away. I have always held authority over these fishing-places and preserved them; and no tribe is allowed to come here and fish without my consent being given. But now, in consequence of the word of the Europeans that all the land below high-water mark belongs to the Queen, people have trampled upon our ancient Maori customs and are constantly coming here whenever they like to fish. I ask that Maori custom shall not be set aside in this manner, and that our authority over these fishing-grounds may be upheld. The whole of this inland sea has been subdivided by our ancestors, and each portion belongs to a proper owner, and the whole of the rights within the Tauranga

43. Document R30, p 8; doc Q13, p 5

44. Document Q34, p 3

45. Te Aroha Luttenberger, brief of evidence, undated (doc G27), p 4

46. Document R62, p 3