High Court grants extra coastal rights to Wairarapa Māori

Wairarapa Maori iwi and hapu have won a High Court action which recognises their customary rights over five areas of the South Wairarapa coastline.

Despite fishing industry objections, High Court Justice Cheryl Gwyn granted the five Customary Marine Titles (CMT) after Māori groups agreed on a geographical division of the areas in accordance with tikanga/custom.

Among the rulings, Justice Gwyn granted customary marine rights for up to 3km out to sea in three of the areas, with two of them reaching 10km out. 

In doing so, she rejected arguments by seafood industry groups that the remote area had been commercially fished for a century and meant the Maori claim to offshore customary rights did not meet the test of continuous use. 

Justice Gwyn noted that Wairarapa Māori had traditional names for both the offshore Continental Shelf and the Hikurangi Trench, which meant they saw their mana extending to those areas. Claimants told of fishing for groper up to 10km from shore and up to 8km for blue cod and gurnard. 

The judge also accepted a “unique situation” in which the claimant groups came together during the case and agreed to hapū and coastal demarcation districts, removing the need for judicial direction.

“What may have seemed at the outset of the hearing to be a conflict (over overlapping application areas, representation and/or mandate) … proved to be the opposite – that is the close interconnectedness and close whakapapa of all applicants.” 

Justice Gwyn was satisfied the “moana mana agreement is not simply an artifice or an accommodation of convenience, but rather a reflection of the shared and interlinked whakapapa and whanaungatanga of the applicants.” The agreements were reached after decades of discussions.

She noted the work of the court had been simplified by “the mana moana agreement in which all hapū along the coastline of the application area have acknowledged one another’s mana …  in respect of different parts of the coastline, in accordance with their shared tikanga. The agreement is a graphic illustration of their shared whakapapa links.”

“In general terms I am able to conclude that the applicant groups have been able to establish their whakapapa links to the application area, going back to the earliest Māori settlement,” Justice Gwyn noted.

The parties are to file any further evidence in support of their applications for wāhi tapu/sacred areas by the week of 15 April 2024.

Issues surrounding Maori customary coastal rights saw the Labour government pass the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act to extinguish Maori customary ownership, instead vesting seabed and foreshore ownership in the Crown.

National later ditched the law, declared no-one owned the foreshore and seabed, but provided for Māori groups to apply for Customary Marine Title (CMT). These titles recognised certain areas were held by Maori and gave them influence over uses in the area between high-water and the 12 nautical mile limit of New Zealand’s territorial sea. 

The new law allowed fishing, free public access, recreation and other common activities.

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