Story: Marine conservation

These members of the Te Āti Awa iwi (tribe) are collecting shellfish from the Taranaki coast. In the early 1980s a synthetics fuel plant at Motunui, near Waitara, was set to pump industrial and sewage waste into the sea. Local Te Āti Awa objected, making a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal. The tribunal recommended that no outfall be built and that other discharges around the Taranaki coast be cleaned up. Since then pollution levels have dropped, especially after the Resource Management Act was passed in 1991. This act places tight restrictions on what can be discharged into the sea. Listen to people of Te Āti Awa speak of their fight to stop the pollution of their fishing grounds.

Transcript

Narrator: After five years of struggle to get the case to the Tribunal and despite government rejection of its recommendations, Te Ati Awa elder, Aila Taylor, says he's still prepared to work through official channels. But others who travelled to Manakōrahi marae from throughout the North Island said they were fed up with official them. Comments like those from Pita Moehu of Te Atiawa and a member of Māna Motuhake were typical of a number of speakers.

Pita Moehu: No more. This is the thing we must convey to this government, that there will not be any further compromises to those things that are dear and sacred to us. There have been efforts to do it the correct way. Where did that get us?  What I say to this hui here now. All of you gather. If you support Te Ati Awa, then use it. Do something with it, write to your MP! Anything. Anything will help. But let the people of the country know what's happening down here, don't sit back, don't mess with words, not in the words, but convey set support.