Raglan and the Maori Land Land Struggle

It would be true to say that in the last year or so Maori land grievances have surely come to the fore. The stand at Bastion Point and the struggle over the Raglan golf course have clearly shown this. This takes place against a background of mounting protest against many aspects of the present social system.

The stand that Maoris are taking says simply this: that during the past 150 years, the Maori people have seen their 66 million acres of land systematically stripped from them by deception, division, and to this very day, force. Added up, that leaves two million acres Nothing has changed in the way of acquiring Maori land, as far as the powers that be are concerned.

So, understandably, Maori anger and frustration is being expressed in a protest that is uniting more and more Maori people and winning many Pakehas. This can only horrify the people responsible for the land robbery, since they sponsor the idea that this is a Maori versus pakeha problem, there by deepening this division, that enables them to carry on exploiting and stealing Maori land. This is the policy of "divide and rule", or, as Bastion Point has shown, "divide and grab".

Even with over one hundred years of representation in parliament, nothing has been done to stop the theft of Maori land.

Pakeha Hostility to Maori Socialism

Where were the four Maori representatives in Parliament when Henry Sewell stated "The object of the Native Lands Act was twofold - to bring the great bulk of the lands which belonged to the Maoris .... within reach of colonisation. The other great object was the de-tribalisation of the Maoris, - to destroy, if it were possible, the principle of communism which ran through the whole of their institution upon which their social system was based, and which stood as a barrier in the way of all attempts to amalgamate the Maori race into our social and political system. It was hoped by the individualisation of titles to land giving them the same individual ownership which we ourselves possessed they would lose their communistic character and that their social status would become assimilated to our own."

The communal, or communistic sharing of land is essential to the identity of the Maori people. To rob them of their land, they are orphaned into the concrete jungle without identity.

And this is only part of what is happening. Robbed of the land, we are forced into the cities, where parasitic landlords rack-rent us in squalid slums, and parasitic employers exploit our labour for as little return as possible. We are thrust into the self-seeking rat race. From our rich cultural environment we are flung into the shallow self-indulgent neon glitter of capitalist culture.

With insult added to injury, we are abused for being forced into these indignities. We then become targets for racism and police harrassment.

But 150 years of prolonged attack have not wiped out the fighting spirit of the Maori people, as Bastion Point and Raglan are proving. On the contrary, they have tempered and steeled it.

The "might is right" mentality shown by the Minister of Lands, Venn Young, when he rubber-stamped the final order to clear Bastion Point of its defenders; his hiding behind the veil of laws passed in his favour; his pretence that this was "justice"; all this was of course in order, according to the tradition of his forbears.

And all he can say on summing up the eviction was "necessary - regrettable - sorry". This from the same man who today farms under the shadow of the Taranaki mountain - confiscated Maori land that he now grows fat on - and all he can say is "sorry". That's the kind of attitude the Maori have been confronted with in their quest for what land they have left. We are not the lawbreakers - the real criminals are the ones who have taken the wealth of the land from the Maori people, and with it our language, culture and identity.

I, myself, can hold no title of land. What dirt I can identify with is under my fingernails, and that would probably be taken too if they could pass an Act to do it. So understandably I know fully the injustices, frustration and grief expressed, that has been voiced to the powers that be - the fruitless trips to Maori affairs, only to be bamboozled by the system, so that they can get their hands on Maori land. And we, the generations following, have had to sit back and watch.

So is it any wonder that things are happening today. The "Maori myth", as many want to describe it, proved in the Hamilton Court in the Raglan dispute, where charges were dismissed against the 17 land patriots arrested in relation to unlawful trespass charges brought forward by golf club big shots, is in fact here, alive, living.

The court victory, where the magistrate found the lease of the land to be invalid, was after all a property issue won on a bourgeois point of law, but under the circumstances, a point worth winning.

The irony here, under the Land Settlement Act of 1952 on which our case was won, was if farm land underwent an ownership change the appropriate tribunal had to be informed of changes in the land use, which they did not.

Here we have a classic example of Acts which have confused many a Maori land owner into not fully understanding. People like the Raglan golf club, who are an elite middle class group, and the local County Council, with supposed knowledge and understanding of such Acts all missed abiding by the land settlement Act. Now, I ask you, how does one with a limited understanding of such Acts expect to know? Even the magistrate and the prosecuting lawyer were confused, as was shown by their floundering efforts to try to convict us.

It would appear from the magistrate's summing up, that under the correct registration of the land, animals may be allowed onto the area, but it seems not Maori people - unless, of course, they are members of the golf club, making them honorary sheep, perhaps, or honorary whites. Confused? So were we!

However, on the basis of the court decision, government should negotiate in a meaningful manner on the basis of handing back the land to the Tainui Awhiro, without cost to the people. That's if the government's genuine, and we know they're not. The $61,000 question the golf club claims for the improvements shows all the ignorance of their forbears, that they have inherited.

That was no waste land taken at the time, but the papakainga (home ground) of the Tainui Awhiro, and you never ever hear anything mentioned of the fact that the Raglan County Council have reaped the benefits for years and years, through golf club fees. The airstrip alone brings in a tidy sum, and nothing is mentioned of the 20 acres gifted to the township of Rag-Ian, where the Council put a motor camp, "Man", the Council is reaping the benefits and profits of that alone in terms of thousands of dollars a year, and more.

What of the proposals put forward by the minister of Lands to the Tainui Awhiro delegation, headed by Eva Rickard on their visit here last week? Seeing another Bastion Point on the horizon, he offers a few crumbs off the table in a desperate attempt to keep it under wraps.

It's no secret to Young and his cronies that the Te Matakite national hui passed a motion for activity to be stepped up, and are at this moment planning to continue the issues of Raglan and Bastion Point. A march at this stage is a possibility, either from Wellington to Raglan, or Auckland to Raglan, or both at the same time, headed by the Tainui Awhiro tribe, to highlight the issues, and to keep them at the front of people's thinking.

Like the 1975 Maori land march, it would call into various maraes en route. The take (take —cause) will be the right of the Raglan Maori people to the return of their land without extra payment. After the victory that the 17 land patriots had in the Hamilton court, feeling is very high, and on that we think we can get great numbers of people to support the return of land at Raglan and a reoccupation of Bastion Point.

The authorities would be hard-pressed to move these people both from the Raglan golf course and Bastion Point. If the government thinks it's all swept under the carpet, they had better wake up to the fact now that no more will we tolerate these injustices that the Maoris have faced in their continuous struggle for their land.

We welcome this chance with open arms to put the government on trial before public thinking. Never before have we had a better chance to expose to the people the injustices perpetrated on Maori land, in this case the Tainui Awhiro, whose land was taken under the war emergency act and never returned. It will give a lead to people whose land was taken under the same Act at that time.

Morally and legally the Raglan land struggle is clear cut both ways. The land was handed over on two conditions: that is, that it be returned after the war, and that the urupa (cemetary) was never to be disturbed. And of course, in keeping with the best of British tradition the land has not been returned and the sacred burial ground that was never to be disturbed is today the 15th and 18th hole. And without thought or feeling, people continue to play golf over those bodies. They continue to tee off from there, and with all the arrogance the pakeha can muster, the people at the top of the economic ladder in this country have continued in their arrogant way to desecrate our people in that area. It's not just a rape of a culture, it's much more than that.

To sum up a small part of that struggle, it could be said that the only question arguable is the amount of money in compensation that the government has demanded. That alone signifies the ownership of Tainui Awhiro land. However, as Eva Rickard has continually said, if any compensation is to be paid it should be the other way, towards them and not away, and that the government are under a greater moral obligation to compensate rather than vica versa. It's certainly unusual in any circumstances for a thief to demand compensation for the return of stolen goods!

Let me give you Tama Poata's parallel here. The rental car people, when they rent their cars out, don't pay people to rent them, them. And in this case the government is demanding that the Tainui Awhiro people pay some money for someone using their own land.

The facts are quite clear: the Maori people of Tainui Awhiro have played their part in making Raglan what it is today, for the enjoyment of all. But their suffering has gone far enough. Raglan is a seaside resort, a place of middle-aged, retired people. But it's also the home of the Tainui Awhiro. All they want is what's rightfully theirs; all they want to do is to live on that land; they don't want any extra. For more than 30 years now, the Awhiro people have been deprived of their property, deprived of joining their ancestors and deprived of having the benefits of housing and a marae on their sacred land.

And still, the government favours the golf club, even after the decision of their Court of law has found the lease to be invalid. After continually emphasizing all along the importance of the lease the golf club held, illegally, the Minister of Lands has continued to talk about the "innocent party", the "meat in the sandwich". But now with the court decision favouring us fractionally in relation to the lease, as far as the land rights organisation is concerned the party is over, the meat in the sandwich has all been eaten, it's time to leave.