'We haven't finished yet' - iwi misses out on bid to buy back ancestral mountain

RNZ News

06-05-2025

Kahurānaki mountain in Hawke's Bay came up for sale earlier this year.
Photo:
Supplied/Tamatea Pōkai Whenua Trust
Hawke's Bay iwi Ngāti Kahungunu has been unsuccessful in its bid to buy back the mountain Kahurānaki, but the iwi says its connection to the land will always remain.
Kahurānaki Station - a 1156 hectare sheep and beef farm south of Havelock North which includes the peak of the mountain - came up for sale earlier this year and the iwi launched a fundraising campaign to buy it.
The campaign to bring the Kahurānaki back into Māori ownership was called 'He Maunga Ka Taea', and included a 10-day hīkoi from Māhia to Kahurānaki. It raised more than $95,000 on crowd funding platform koha.kiwi.
Hastings-based post-settlement governance entity Tamatea Pōkai Whenua Trust submitted a tender on behalf of the iwi. Chairman Pōhatu Paku said the trust was the only local entity to tender for the Station and they were saddened and disappointed by the outcome.
The trust had approached the tender on the basis it was presented, the sale of a sheep and beef farm, he said.
Paku acknowledged the young and emerging iwi members who had generated the groundswell of support for the tender and for the longer term status of the mountain.
"E mihi ana ki tēnā, ki tēnā o tātau e titikaha nei ki tēnei kaupapa, arā ko tō tātau maunga. I just want to acknowledge and mihi to everybody that has connected with this kaupapa. Watch this space, we haven't finished yet."
Paku said the trust would be engaging with the station's new owners at an appropriate time to convey the iwi's history and also set out their aspirations.
"The continuation of the protection of our wāhi tapu (sacred sites) is significantly important to us, to all of us," he said.
Continued access to the mountain would also be a high priority, he said.
"The previous owners were quite open for Kura for people running kaupapa and also those that wished to ascend the maunga they allowed that, they identified that it was culturally significant to us all."
Paku said Tamatea Pōkai Whenua will need to foster the groundswell of support and leadership that the He Maunga Ka Taea campaign had generated.
"The whakapapa connections and taonga that is Kahurānaki maunga remain, our greatest advantage is that we live in perpetuity and our maunga and our tīpuna live with us and they continue to be ours.
"And like all of our tūtohu whenua (landmarks) our maunga carries our traditions and our identity and our histories and we remain uncompromising to act in the best interests of our tūtohu whenua both for this generation and for future generations."
Paku said the trust may look at legal personhood as another avenue to protect the mountain, but ultimately he said the maunga remains an ancestor and retains its own mana which no one can ever own.
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