Letter to the Tangata Whenua
"Harmony"
Dear ...........,
I am one of the women who have put in a proposal for the
lease of the land. I write not as a member of the Community but as myself. What I say may not necessarily promote our cause in
your hearts. However, I feel that in the process of all the ‘legal’ wording
that is necessary in a transaction of this kind, the heart is not expressed. It
is that heart that I wish you to be aware of before you make any final decisions
with regards to this land. We are not ordinary pakeha people. Having come from
Britain and Australia, we all come lately to all the political issues around
land in this country. Forgive me then my ignorance of your customs of greeting.
Just know that what I am about to say comes from my heart. I have long objected
to the concept of land ownership, although like everyone else, I have had my own
piece of it. The older I get the more I dislike the concept that we can divide
up and own another living being which Papatuanuku, whom I call Gaia, is to me.
However, we all have our own special relationship with that piece of her that we
have been given stewardship over. I guess that is what you call Tangata Whenua.
I honour that. It’s the same for me as the way a mother cares for the
child of her womb but does not own it. So, one of the reasons I, as one of the
members of Gaia, have asked about this land at Akapatiki to set up the community is because it is your stewardship. I do not
want to own any more of Aotearoa, but I do want to live with her, on her, and
have a relationship with her people. Technically speaking we could
purchase 3 acres somewhere and live in community together, but I don’t
personally want it like that. I would rather do it with the blessing and
co-operation of the Tangata Whenua. This piece of land seems steeped in Maori
history. I have begun to hear the stories of her. Her Moa bones in the earth.
Her wetland hunting grounds of the people. Her ancientness. If I was honoured to
be allowed to live on her, I would see my role also as a caretaker in concert
with the Tangata Whenua. It feels important, should that happen, that we were
welcomed onto the land formally and that a Tohunga pave the way with the spirits
of the land for us to live there. I have not spoken yet to the others about
this, but I have no doubt of their feelings too. We already have ideas of ways
we could co-operate with Maori with the retaining of flax, growing of native
plants for weaving and medicinal purposes, and perhaps even initiate some
traditional carving for the entrance way, through the Rununga. These are just
ideas that have been talked about in the meantime. For me it’s a ‘holding’
of the land out of the corporate system. Too much has gone, much of it overseas
where absent landlords neither love nor care for her. Maybe you will not
resonate with what I am saying. Maybe what you want for the land is not what I
(we) am offering. In that case, do not choose us as caretakers. We do not want
to make the land a subdivision of houses. Which is why we do not want the road
through the middle. Roads divide. We want to make a small community of people
who will love and care for that land as long as it is right for you to have us
do that. We want to do that in the way that is most beneficial to the land
itself as well as the people, yours and ours, and the generations that come
after we have gone. We do not want to carve it up and put cribs on it in a line.
Anyway, I just felt like I wanted to share this with you outside the legal
process woman to woman. What you do with it now is for you only to decide. There
is no need to answer, unless, as a woman you feel drawn to doing so from your
heart.
In honour of a future filled with greater co-operation between the Tangata Whenua of this land and the Pakeha residents, I send my blessings!
Declaration to the Four Sacred Things
Webmaster: Jay Ray Updated 27/07/2008