Maori make claims to control river

Several iwi in the region are making Treaty claims to try to take back more control over the Manawatu River.

The groups want the sick river cleaned up, with some believing they could do a better job at managing it than Horizons Regional Council has.

Rangitaane o Manawatu Iwi is the first in the region to reach negotiation stage on a Treaty settlement claim on the river.

Principal negotiator Danielle Harris said the more than 2000 iwi members would be looking to have a more involved role in the management and cleaning up of the river. The iwi was working positively with Horizons Regional Council on the clean-up of the river and wanted to continue to do so, she said.

Te Wananga-o-Raukawa professor Whatarangi Winiata said Ngati Raukawa Iwi, Ngati Kauwhata Iwi, and a group of iwi and hapu under the name Te Reu Reu would also be putting together a claim on the Manawatu River.

Another Te Wananga-o-Raukawa lecturer and researcher, and member of Ngati Raukawa Iwi, Pataka Moore, said of the 24 sub-tribes of Raukawa most, if not all, of the members had a connection with the Manawatu River.

His ancestors used to shift their whole village to the river banks each year to fish and drink the pristine water, he said.

"People say it's gone now, we won't get the river back to that state, but we could get it back if we wanted to," he said. "The iwi is hoping to turn the management of the river around. It's sad it has got like that, as a region it's up to us to fix it, we have to say it's been a mistake to manage it the way we have."

He would want to see the iwi manage more of the river than the regional council.

University researcher Malcolm Mulholland, who recently slammed Horizon's management of the river in the book he co-published called Maori and the Environment: Kaitiaki , said the best outcome iwi could get within the current framework was a co-management model with the regional council.

Horizons chief executive officer Michael McCartney said conversations with iwi on joint-management of the river would depend on what came out of the Waitangi Tribunal and decisions from the Treaty Settlements Office.

While there were certainly cultural interests in the river, the wider community also had interests the council had to represent, he said.

"There are many people who are passionate about the river and should potentially have a voice in how it is managed.

"We try to work with whatever iwi want to work with us."

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