By Te Kakenga Kawiti-Bishara, Taiuru News
Iwi representatives are in shock and grieving after discovering thousands of dead and dying tuna and fish on a dried up lakebed.
Iwi from across the Manawatū/Rangitīkei rohe have called for a thorough investigation into the disaster that has struck an historic kai source near Himatangi.
Whānau were left to pick up the remains of tuna and ika from the bed of Pukepuke Lagoon, and to try to save a small number of surviving short and long-fin tuna.
“He ahua riri mātau – mātau katoa: Rangitāne, Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Raukawa hoki,” said Grant Huwyler, group CEO / Tāhūhū Rangapū of Te Rūnanga o Ngā Wairiki-Ngāti Apa. (“We are all angry – all of us: Rangitāne, Ngāti Apa, and Ngāti Raukawa.”)
“Kei te whakahē mātou ki ngā mahi o te drainage board, ngā rōpū pēnei. Nā rātou te mahi whakataha i te wai ki wāhi kē,” said Grant Huwyler. (“We are against the actions of the drainage board, groups like that. They are the ones who divert water to other places.”)
On Thursday iwi leaders were alerted by Horizons Regional Council and Te Papa Atawhai (Department Of Conservation) to the crisis, where they witnessed mass numbers of tuna carcasses strewn across the dry lake bed, with some surviving tuna writhing on the ground.
“We got notified by DOC yesterday afternoon and the pānui went out to all of our whānau. Just the impact that it’s had is phenomenal,” said Kaiwhakahaere Matua/CEO of Rangitāne o Manawatū Settlement Trust Debbie Te Puni.
“The Rangitāne response is to basically bring all of our iwi, our hapū, our whānau together to work on this collectively. We have our treaty settlements, and we have statutory acknowledgements, but at the end of the day it’s not actually about that. It’s about all of us who have hononga to this wāhi tapu,” Te Puni added.
Over the weekend, Ngāti Raukawa Te Au Ki Te Tonga descendant Justin Tamihana put out the call for families across the district to come and salvage the surviving eels that needed to be rehomed.
“We’re certainly not going to be able to remove everything in here, but I think tangibly what can be removed and saved, we should take every opportunity to do that,” Tamihana said.
“We can’t wait for the science, we can’t wait for the Crown to say go ahead. The response is required now. We don’t want to see our tuna suffer.
“It’s really great to see we’re getting a variation in sizes, and then we want to relocate these as best we can to a suitable location,” Tamihana said.
Hayden Turoa of Ngāti Tūranga is calling on tribes in the region to be vigilant over serious threats to their waterways.
“This is what government management looks like. Anei te hua. It’s failing us, it’s failing the lake, it’s failing a Crown jewel in this area, it’s failed it,” Turoa said.
“We need to start an investigation team made up of all three of our iwi that will lead DOC and Horizons, because both of these entities in some form or another are responsible” Turoa said.
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Taiuru News is a Te Tai Hauāuru regional news service, encompassing the area from Taranaki to Whanganui and Manawatū.