Taniwha in the way of Auckland rail loop

Auckland's dream train project, the $2.6 billion city loop, might have another problem to face - Horotiu the taniwha.

While the government says the project is un-economic, Mayor Len Brown has staked his political future on a tunnel under the central city linking Britomart station to Mt Eden.

But, says Maori Statutory Board member Glenn Wilcox, no one has asked the local Ngati Whatua about it at all.

And they are supposed to as the iwi was here first, he said.

"What's being done about the taniwha Horotiu who lives just outside here, and that tunnel will be going right through his rohe (area)," Wilcox told the Auckland City Council's transport committee.

Wilcox said today he is surprised that the council officials did not have answers, because they were not considering the Maori in planning the city.

"I love PDFs from the council, and I and just put the word Maori, tangata whenua or iwi into the search box and normally they do not come up with anything," he says.

"It concerns me that they do not see Maori as a component of the city, and that is where I come from."

Brown said he was satisfied that an appropriate level of consultation had taken place with iwi since the inception of the project and that consultation would continue as the project progressed.

Politically taniwha are not to be treated lightly.

In 2002 Transit New Zealand moved part of State Highway 1 after Ngati Naho of Meremere claimed it was cutting through the domain of one eyed taniwha Karu Tahi. In the same year, a Northland iwi unsuccessfully claimed a prison should not be built at Ngawha because of a taniwha.

Mr Wilcox said Horotiu's realm ran from Myer's Park to the sea, under the Town Hall and Queen Street.

Ngati Whatua acknowledged him by naming the creek that once existed there, Waihorotiu. With Pakeha settlement it became a sewer known as Ligar Canal.

"There are always ways to placate taniwha," Wilcox said.

"The Maori world has its own yin and yang, and taniwha had their own yin and yang.

"As kaitiaki or guardians they protect people, but they also get up and bite you if they do not like what you are doing."

Wilcox agreed that raising the taniwha issue was something of a shot across the bows of the super council and reminding them that the Maori Statutory Board existed and had issues.

"It is so easy to become a quasi San Diego or Brisbane and our whole culture is based on that kind of things. Kids are listening more to more rap than they are listening to Maori songs.``

Auckland kept comparing itself with other cities, he said.

"We are all comparing ourselves with Queensland or Perth; like the little brother who wants to ape the big brother."

Even in Australia they were now thinking about the indigenous cultures.

"You cannot just replant Europe and Australia in New Zealand and have no regard with what came before."

While a taniwha was once considered a dragon or monster, veteran Maori studies academic Ranginui Walker has written that these days taniwha are a manifestation of a coping mechanism.

At the time of the Meremere decision, he said taniwha were peppered all over the landscape, noting that Maori use them to explain events, such as a string of fatal accidents on SH1 near Meremere.

"You have to placate local demons, deities, taniwha . . . don't tempt fate. Who knows the number of deaths along the Meremere straight caused by taniwha?" said Walker.

"They are sacred and familiar friends."

- © Fairfax NZ News