Ihumatao is a place of historical significance located three km from the Auckland International Airport in the city of Mangere, Auckland. Mangere is also known as Tāmaki Makaurau in the indigenous language. It was once a Maori village.
According to the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Ihumātao means cold nose. Maori have been inhabiting the area since the 14th century. The land was forcefully taken from the Maori’s by the government of New Zealand after they supported the Kingitanga movement during the Waikato Invasion of 1863.
The land was used by local indigenous tribes for farming and other things until it they were evicted in July of 2016. The land was acquired by the Fletcher group for developing residences on site. SOUL or Save Our Unique Landscape is an activist group who has been staging protests on the site to protect the Ihumatao since 2016.
The group has been led by mana whenua and other members under the leadership of Pania Newton. The administration evicted protestors from the site in July 2019 and the stand-off between people resulted in 11 protestors getting arrested. Eventually, more people joined in the protest at Ihumatao.
This kind of protest was compared with the Bastion Point protest of the 1970s. The Maori tribe stood against the forced eviction of Maori by the Pakeha or the European settlers. The protest for the Springbok in 1981 and these two events have been the biggest protests witnessed by New Zealand.
The site at Ihumatao was purchased by the government of New Zealand to hand it over to the protestors in 2020. The ongoing tussle between the government and protestors ended. A new controversy sparked on 29th April 2021 when the office of Auditor General held that the purchase of land by the government was illegitimate and void. Now, the government is preparing to pass a law in favour of the indigenous tribe to strike the order of the Auditor General’s office.
Why the site is important to Maori?
Mana Whenua, a term used to designate Maori tribe having the ownership of the disputed land, are related to Ihumatao. They were the first people to arrive at Tamaki from East Polynesia and take the land as theirs. Archaeologists and historians have established that Maori inhabited the location in 1450. The Lava fields of Ihumatao were also under the control of the tribe since the 1500s.
Early Maori settlers made the warm and fertile volcanic soil useful for cultivation at Ihumatao. The land made of loose volcanic rock was towed to build a complex structure of drainage and irrigation system to make the soil survivable for tropical crops like sweet potato and taro.
The settlement spanned the vast area of 8000 hectares on these Lava fields. Modern development has left it in shambles. Ihumatao’s fields have deep historical and cultural significance for the Mana Whenua people. This is why they have been protesting to protect their land which helped them to survive.