While R. is training in Maori territories up north, I’m in Matapouri wwoofing. Turns out it’s a great way to learn about the nitty-gritty of organic farming, and to take part in daily life in kiwi land.
This being North Island’s east coast the beach is as much daily life as keeping a permaculture farm going. ‘Been to the beach yet?’ is the catchphrase around here.
Malaysia has nice beaches, but here.. Nested in a string of small bays, every beach is a small resort by itself. Some are secluded, one is pebbled, some have big surfs, some none at all. Palm trees, parakeets, the only thing missing in the picture is a pirate going ashore with a gold chest.
The pirates are gone but the gold chest is still around. The northern part of Matapouri Bay harbours two wahitapus, sacred grounds where the bodies of slain warriors of five Maori tribes used to be prepared and buried. In 1970 the state bought the land and turned it into the Otito Reserve. The family living there were made lifetime tenants, 60 years after they had bought the land themselves. When the tenancy expired the house was to be removed so that the wahitapu could be restored.
Instead the family plans to develop the territory. Last year land surveyors were planting land pegs in the Otito Reserve in order to divide it in plots. The plots were based on a survey plan from 1999. By chance a local noticed the surveyors at work and quickly organised the local community into the grassroots campaign Friends of Matapouri. A costly legal battle ensued, with Friends of Matapouri on one side and the state on the other. The people accuse the state surveying department of making rigged plans, and demand that the Crown restore the boundaries of 1970. The state says the 1999 survey plan, which is 1 hectare bigger than the the 1970 territory is correct. The family meanwhile stands in between the parties, eagerly waiting for the green light.
So after the Maori tribes clashed over the land centuries ago, the state taking it back decades ago, a family claiming it since last year, the battle over this idyllic piece of the Bay is still in full swing.
Friends of Matapouri have taken the case to the High Court, which will have a session on Friday.
