7.3.2 The coastal environment - a special taonga

This entire framework of values and principles is most clearly demonstrated in the relationship between tangata whenua and the coastal environment - especially Tauranga Moana, the harbour on which so many Tauranga Māori depended. Many witnesses attested to the significance of this relationship, including Angela Marie Merewhiua Bennett of Ngāti Hangarau:

Wherever you are in Tauranga Moana, or whoever you are, living in this area had the same significance. It was to everyone within these bounds ‘Nga Kuri a Wharei ki Wairakei’ our bountiful Moana of seafood. Our ancestors chose their landing place well.³⁶

All the hapū whose heartland lies within the inquiry district maintained principal residences on the shores of Tauranga Moana. Tauranga Moana provided both immeasurably significant economic resources, and potent cultural symbols of the wealth and mana of the people. Anthony Fisher told us that ‘the essence of being Ngai Te Rangi, our customs, diets and values were all heavily influenced by the Harbour, estuary and coastal environment. This was a resource on which Ngai Te Rangi were almost totally dependent’.³⁷

People who lived on islands - such as Matakana Island, where people could ‘take a step outside and in all directions, reap the once rich harvests of Tangaroa’³⁸ - were perhaps the most reliant on these resources. But the harbour and coastal environment provided all Tauranga hapū with an enormous range and quantity of kaimoana and mātaitai, including tītiko, pūpū, kukuroroa, tio, kokoto, kuharu, pipi, tuangi, kuku, kanae, wheke, kahawai, pioke, tāmure, aua, arāra, haku, inanga, kōeaea, tuna, tarakihi, and pātiki.³⁹ Many witnesses told us of the former abundance of kai in the harbour.⁴⁰ Kihi Ngatai, for example, recalled as a young man ‘the pipi beds being so thick in the Harbour you could hear the snapper feeding on them at night time’.⁴¹ Other witnesses recalled flounder being trapped with the feet, herrings scooped up by hand, and nets so overflowing with fish that they could not be hauled in; the nets had to be cut to set the excess free.⁴²

36. Brief of evidence of Angela Marie Merewhiua Bennett, undated (doc D17), p 3

37. Document R3, p 5

38. Document J21, p 3

39. Document A50, p 28

40. For example, Ngahuia Dixon, brief of evidence, undated (doc E4), pp 28–30; Haare Williams, brief of evidence, undated (doc E5), pp 7–8; English translation of document E6, undated (doc E6(a)), pp 2–4; Colin Reeder, brief of evidence, undated (doc E25), p 7; Peata McLeod, brief of evidence, undated (doc E26), pp 3–4; Morro River Peters, brief of evidence, undated (doc E27); doc Q5, pp 7–8; Kingi Kino Ranui, brief of evidence, 22 May 2006 (doc Q6), pp 3–4; Kihi Ngatai, brief of evidence, undated (doc Q13), pp 11–13; Hinerongo Taikato Walker, brief of evidence, undated (doc Q32), pp 4–5; Eddie Tiepa Bluegum, brief of evidence, 26 June 2006 (doc R8), p 6; Te Karehana Wicks, brief of evidence, 26 June 2006 (doc R25), p 3; Brian Dickson, brief of evidence, 26 June 2006 (doc R26), p 3; Iria Friconnet Stokes, brief of evidence, undated (doc R62), p 4

41. Document Q13, p 12

42. For example, Keni Piahana, brief of evidence, undated (doc G26), p 7; doc R3, p 9; doc A50, p 136