Local Ihumatao expected resolution announcement on Waitangi day...

In this third week of the new year and decade, it's so pleasing to hear, in our local area, about a final resolution that looks positive for mana whenua (indigenous peoples who are guardians of a local area) who have been fighting to keep what was formerly their lands from being developed into a residential area for 400+ housing estate.

The positive outcome of their six-year protest i.e. occupying the land or rather guardianship has been to ensure that the sacred places that were forcibly taken from them by the then government in the 1800s has been negotiated through the Maori King with the legal owners, a multi-national company known as Fletcher Building.

The standoff started in the middle of last year with the company issuing trespass notices and forcibly removing the local guardians from the place, at Ihumatao, that they were occupying. In fact, if you were to go for a walk there. It's a beautiful and peaceful area, right next to the coast a 5-minute drive from the airport and now being overtaken by large multinational companies with their large storage spaces.

The small village that remains there are remnants of what used to be a thriving community before the 1860s eviction notice came for all Maori to leave the area and for the new immigrants i.e. Europeans from England to take over the lands to be used for sheep and dairy farming. Those immigrants lend most of their names to the roads that are spotted around the area.

The date for the big announcement is planned for around Waitangi Day. Although many do not know the details of the negotiations, through reading media reports it sounds like the Auckland Council has been a part of it as well as Fletcher Buildings accepting the terms. So much so that the paraphernalia has all been taken away and the Kingitanga flag has been deployed this week.

Pania Newton, one of the co-leaders of the SOUL (Save our unique landscape) local mana whenua movement, will be pleased as she's now hapu (pregnant) and expecting a child very soon. This will be a blessing for her and she anticipates her next move in becoming a new mother having done such a neat job as kaitiaki (guardian) as the whole movement has been of maintaining the sacredness of their whenua (land/s)...