IN THE MATTTER of the Resource Management Act 1991 AND IN THE MATTER of an application by SkyPlay Adventures Limited and Tauhara North 2 Trust (applicant) and Taupō District Council (Consent Authority) in relation to an application for Land Use Consent RM190270 (Application) Statement of evidence of Maria Nepia as Natural Resource Manager on behalf of the Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board 23 September 2020 1 INTRODUCTION 1. My name is Maria Nepia. I am an uri of Ngāti Tūwharetoa. 2. I have been the Natural Resources Manager for the Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board since 2018. I have been extensively involved in Resource Management matters with Ngāti Tūwharetoa for the past 20 years. 3. I hold a degree in Environmental Science from Auckland University. THE ROLE OF THE TŪWHARETOA MĀORI TRUST BOARD 4. The Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board (Trust Board) was established pursuant to the Māori Land Amendment Act 1924 and Māori Land Claims Adjustment Act 1926. The Trust Board later became a Māori Trust Board under the Māori Trust Boards Act 1955. 5. By Deeds with the Crown dated 28 August 1992 and 10 September 2007 the Trust Board is the legal owner of Taupō Waters. 6. The term Taupō Waters refer to property including the bed, water column and air space of Lake Taupō and the Waihora, Waihaha, Whanganui, Whareroa, Kuratau, Poutu, Waimarino, Tauranga- Taupō, Tongariro, Waipehi, Waiotaka, Hinemaiaia and Waitahanui Rivers and the Waikato River, from the outlet of Lake Taupō to a place known as Te Toka a Tia, downstream and inclusive of the Huka Falls. 7. The Trust Board is also a party to the Waikato River Deed with the Crown dated 31 May 2010 (the Waikato River Deed). The Waikato River Deed was given legal effect through the Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Raukawa, and Te Arawa River Iwi Waikato River Act 2010 (the Upper Waikato River Act). 8. The Waikato River Deed provides that the Crown and the Trust Board agreed to enter into the Waikato River Deed in recognition of “the interests of Ngāti Tūwharetoa in the Waikato River and its catchment and in Taupō Waters and to provide for the participation of Ngāti Tūwharetoa in the co-governance and co-management arrangements in respect of the Waikato River”.1 9. The Trust Board’s relationship to Taupō Waters is unique; it holds legal title as trustee and acts as kaitiaki for Taupō Waters. These fiduciary responsibilities over Taupō Waters to present and future generations underpin all the activities and aspirations of the Trust Board. 10. The Trust Board is an Iwi Authority for the purposes of the Resource Management Act 1991. 11. Expressions of our intrinsic connection to Ngā wai o Tūwharetoa have been well documented through our iwi planning documents, Joint Management Agreement with Taupō District and Waikato Regional Councils, and reflected at a national level through regulation such as the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management – Te Mana o te Wai. 1 Waikato River Deed, 31 May 2010, clause 8 2 12. We continue to express our position through the participation in numerous planning and policy processes. They are repeated in this submission as they form our enduring position on water within our rohe. 13. Where appropriate and requested to do so the Trust Board can also play a representative role for hapū and marae, supporting them to be kaitiaki as Mana Whenua within Ngāti Tūwharetoa. 14. In some instances, marae and hapū will choose to speak for themselves, which is demonstrated by those marae and hapū who have separately engaged with this application as submitters in their own right. 15. In other instances, the Trust Board continues to provide that role and function where it has the resources to support Tūwharetoa hapū and marae to have a voice in various issues affecting them. Refer to the letter in support from Ngāti TeKohera as an example and attach it to your evidence (attachment 1). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 16. Ngāti Tūwharetoa hold Mana Whenua over the area where the development is to take place, this is demonstrated by whakapapa, physical location of our marae, land ownership, Settlement lands and Settlement obligations. In particular, we view Te Awa o Waikato, inclusive of the banks of the awa as a living entity that has its own Mana, Mauri and Wairua. 17. There has been ad hoc and inadequate consultation with those Ngāti Tūwharetoa marae and hapū who hold Mana Whenua and the Trust Board who are all directly impacted by the proposed development. The inadequate consultation has resulted in the Application, in our view, failing to have regard to the cultural effects of this proposal. 18. In that regard, the Trust Board considers that: i. The Natural Values and Significant Landscapes Values should be viewed with a cultural overlay which in the view of the Trust Board is missing from the Application Assessments and is not identified in the Planners Report. ii. The Applicant has not adequately considered the visual impacts of this development. We believe that additional assessments are required in order for the decision-maker to have regard to the cultural visual impacts of the proposed development of homebase. 19. The Applicant has commissioned and relied upon a 2017 Cultural Assessment authored by Gayle Leaf (2017 Leaf Report). The Trust Board has a number of concerns with the 2017 Leaf Report being used as the assessment of Ngāti Tūwharetoa cultural values and a Cultural Impact Assessment for this Application, namely: i. As confirmed by the author, the assessment completed as a Cultural Assessment of Te Awa o Waikato and was never intended to be used as a Cultural Impact Assessment for the Development. ii. There was no involvement or process of approval of those hapū and marae with Mana Whenua in the development of the Cultural Assessment. This is a critical step in assessing any Cultural Impact Assessment. Without this step it is our view the 2017 Leaf Report cannot be used as a Cultural Impact Assessment or indeed a Tūwharetoa Cultural Assessment. 3 20. Accordingly, the 2017 Leaf Report should not be considered a Ngāti Tūwharetoa Cultural Impact Assessment. 21. In that regard, the Trust Board considers that a Tūwharetoa Cultural Impact Assessment is required so that the cultural values and impacts of the Application can be clearly identified by mana whenua. 22. In addition, it is appropriate that the process of developing a Cultural Impact Assessment will require direct engagement with each of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa marae and hapū who have mana whenua in the Application area. 23. On that basis the Trust Board asserts that the Application is incomplete, and we support our Marae opposing this Application. Until a Ngāti Tūwharetoa Cultural Impact Assessment is completed, we seek to have this Application be declined. NGĀTI TŪWHARETOA 24. Ngāti Tūwharetoa are the descendants of Tūwharetoa, Ngātoroirangi, Tia and other tūpuna who have occupied the Taupō region continuously since the arrival of the Te Arawa waka. 25. Ngāti Tūwharetoa are linked by Whakapapa to our lands, waterways and other Taonga. This connection establishes our Mana Whenua, Kaitiakitanga and Rangatiratanga, including our right to establish and maintain a meaningful and sustainable relationship with these resources. 26. Lake Taupō and the Waikato Awa are Taonga Tuku Iho of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and embody the Mana and Rangatiratanga of Ngāti Tūwharetoa. 27. The northern hapū of Ngāti Tūwharetoa are referred to as Te Hikuwai o Tūwharetoa (Te Hikuwai2) who have a long-standing relationship with the Taupō headwaters, Waikato River and surrounding land blocks. These hapū collectively are the kaitiaki of the area in which the development is proposed. 28. Te Hikuwai also hold collective and individual marae and hapū rights of Mana Whenua3 and Ahi kā4 to the lands of where the proposed Zipline homebase building and related structures. 29. Te Awa o Waikato inclusive the surrounding land has provided physical and spiritual sustenance to tangata whenua living along its banks for generations. It is a source of mahinga kai, transport, healing and spiritual nourishment. This is captured in the whakataukī; ‘Waikato Taniwha rau, he piko he taniwha, he piko he taniwha’ 30. Which is a reference to the many bends of the river and furthermore a metaphor to the many chiefs who sit at each bend. 4 31. For the Tūwharetoa hapū who sit at the first bend of the Waikato river, the river and all of its tributaries are taonga tuku iho whose waters are personified to the life-giving properties of women. This significance is represented in the Tūwharetoa whakatauakī; ‘kei te tūwhera tonu te pūau i Nukuhau’ 32. Which means, ‘so long as the Waikato River flows from Nukuhau, so will the chieftainesses of Ngāti Tūwharetoa continue to flow from the fountain’. 33. We acknowledge the essence of our ancestors and all those who have passed away and have taken this journey in following Te Awa o Waikato, he awa tupuna, he ara wairua. 34. While it is difficult to describe the nature and context of Ngāti Tūwharetoa mana whenua in a written form and in English, the relationship our place inclusive of the Application area is demonstrated in the following ways: i. the Trust Board exclusively owns the bed of the Waikato River to Te Toka a Tia and is the party for Ngāti Tūwharetoa to the Waikato River Settlement arrangements. ii. Ngāti Tūwharetoa under Te Kotahitanga o Tūwharetoa Trust (TKT) have received cultural redress lands on the Wairakei side of the river neighbouring the Department of Conservation (DoC) lands on which the Application for the ‘homebase’ and zipline platforms and towers is made. iii. Ngāti Tūwharetoa Marae are closely located to the Application site, noting two are within approximately 5km.