Colin Maungapōhatu Bidois and Te Hokingamai o Mauao

Colin Maungapōhatu Bidois and Te Hokingamai o Mauao [1]

The Orange Folder

The yearning felt by the Nameless One for his beautiful maunga, Puwhenua, was matched in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the iwi of Tauranga Moana as they saw Mauao taken out of their kaitiakitanga “through Crown breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, through Crown manipulation and laws which were aimed at dismantling the social and political infrastructure of Maoridom, laws such as the New Zealand Settlement Act 1863, The Native Land Act 1873, The Waste Lands Act 1876, The Public Reserves Act 1854, The Harbour Act 1878 and other statutes.” [2]

C.M. Bidois' Grave

The words quoted are those of Colin Maungapōhatu Bidois, a kaumatua of Ngāti Ranginui whose archive of papers relating to his work for the iwi of Tauranga Moana has passed into the keeping of the Te Puna Memorial Hall Society. This blog is a very preliminary acknowledgement of his generous gift and a humble, necessarily brief, exploration of just one aspect of this remarkable man’s life – his part in the return of Mauao to the tāngata whenua. I am indebted to Wikitoria Bidois for permission to access these particular papers.

Maungapōhatu would be the first to say that he was one of many. His submission, quoted above, opens with a gracious acknowledgement of another eminent kaumatua, Kiritoha Tangitu, who had, Colin said, promoted the possibility of the return “approximately 10 years ago.”

That takes us back to another document in his papers: the well-marked and flagged pages of Roimata Minhinnick’s Report on Mauao/Mount Maunganui, WAI 540, received at the Waitangi Tribunal on 13 June 1999. [3] Colin’s interest in this document was intense. From his highlighted sections and Post-it notes the researcher can see his mind at work and the threads of argument being woven into a firm fabric to enfold him as he took his seat before the Maori Affairs Committee. Like Kiritoha, he was a Pirirakau man. He was determined to assert their agency in the confusion and collusion that followed the so-called “Pacification Hui” that followed the battle of Te Ranga. He stood the Pirirakau claim up against the convenient Crown fiction that Governor Grey’s Promise to Tauranga Iwi [4] (actually, a deal struck only with Ngai Te Rangi) had settled (pun intended) all arrangements [5] between the Crown and tāngata whenua.

But Colin was also wise enough not to pursue only narrow interests. Elsewhere in his collection I found a faded orange folder with a mysterious label in his handwriting. In order, I list the first four documents it contains.
 
First, a draft Deed of Trust of the Mauao Trust, undated but for the year (2007 [6]) and unsigned, but intended for signature by eminent representatives of Ngai Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāti Pukenga as well as Colin himself as Chairman of Te Rūnanganui o Tauranga Moana. Colin has marked several elements of the draft in an evident effort to guide discussion to his salient points – phrases like, “stand possessed”, “receive and hold” “protect and preserve.” A question mark appears alongside clause 3.3, “Objects and Purposes Independent.” He endorses processes around appointment and removal of Trustees with the simple word, “Iwi.” Administrative details concerning bank accounts and use of the Common Seal are marked with arrows. Tax, remuneration and liability references are circled.

C.M. Bidois' Grave

Colin had prepared carefully for what the next document suggests was a hui to take place on 16 July. It is a handwritten list of significant dates, absences and appointments, and three heavily-scored items for lawyer Spencer Webster’s attention. Touchingly, the last entry on the page is a note to self: “Thank Rahera [probably, Rahera Ohia] for letter.”

The third item is another handwritten list, undated, but headed, “Set Adgenda [sic].” Once again we get a glimpse into the mind of a master of situations: an orderly sequence of topics for korero, attention to cost implications, a note lining Rahera and Spencer up for a rewording of a specific clause, and a firm conclusion: “then Response to MoMA [Minister of Maori Affairs].”

Most telling, perhaps, is the fourth item: a newspaper clipping dated 29/05/07 in Colin’s handwriting. The Herald had invited the chairman of the Ngāti Whātua o Orakei Trust Board to write an article it headlined, “Ngāti Whātua to move forward minus theatrics.” Colin has underlined the first sentence of the second paragraph: “Any Treaty settlement is going to involve claims and counter-claims ...” and has marked at the margins other remarks warning of the arduous and adversarial path – the hard yards – that lie ahead of the “real negotiators.”

And this, in reality, was just the beginning. There are 30 more documents in the orange folder, evidence of face-downs, stand-offs and compromise as Mauao stood tantalisingly in the shadows. But the last item, a folder in its own right, contains the introduction copy and associated speech notes and press statement for the Mauao Historic Reserve Vesting Bill. The patupaiarehe had vanished into the night and the light of legislative scrutiny shone on the return of the maunga. The Act was passed in May 2008. Even so, ten more years went by before the Mauao Historic Reserve Management Plan [7] was concluded.  Three other sets of documents, largely unexamined, detail Colin’s part in this protracted negotiation.

Researchers of the future will find much to value in this archive. Those of us who knew Maungapōhatu can feel privileged to get glimpses of his personal approach to public life. Those who will now never meet him will find a mother lode of insights and narrative on aspects of iwi development and tenacious purpose in te rohe o Tauranga Moana. Just as he wanted.

References

[1] As Chair of the Rūnanganui, Colin preferred the term “The Vesting of Title to Mauao Historic Reserve.”  See letter, 2 August 2007, to Huata Palmer, then Chairperson of the Ngaiterangi Iwi Incorporated Society.

[2] Colin Maungapohatu Bidois, Submission to the Maori Affairs Committee re Mauao Historic Reserve Vesting Bill, 27 February 2008.

[3] Roimata Minhinnick, Report Commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal for the Tauranga claim (Wai 215), endorsed WAI 540 – A2 and WAI 215 – A49.

[4] AJHR 1867, A20.

[5] In the words of the Tauranga District Lands Act 1867: “all grants, awards, contracts or agreements”.

[6] Colin had begun the process in 2003: see email, Ngāti Ranginui Iwi to Spencer Webster, November 3 2003.

[7] https://www.tauranga.govt.nz/Portals/0/data/council/plans/files/mauao_reserve_management.pdf