​A group from the small community of Aotea Great Barrier Island – made up of Kaumātua, whānau and tamariki – Māori, Pākeha and Tauiwi are expecting a decision soon from the High Court after recently taking on corporate giants Coastal Resources Ltd and the governmental agency - Environmental Protection Authority.
 
Earlier this year the residents of Aotea submitted to the High Court and were successful in being awarded the right to appeal in the Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) decision to grant Coastal Resources Ltd (CRL) permission to increase the amount of sediment it dumps from 50,000 cubic metres to 250,000 cubic metres annually for 35 years, just 25 km of the east coast of Aotea, Great Barrier Island. 

Launched at Paratene Te Manu Marae in Ngunguru in July, Te Waka Reo is the latest reo project of the Ngātiwai Trust Board’s Te Reo Māori strategy.
 
Te Waka Reo is about encouraging the use of te reo and the speaking of it. A strong component of the programme is about encouraging participants to learn waiata and moteatea that were commonly heard in the times of our tūpuna, but not so commonly heard today.

​Te Whānau ā Rangiwhakaahu know they can’t slow down the rate of change as they are seeing Tourism explode in their rohe. They also know first-hand the impact tourism can have on the whenua and moana having earlier this year imposed a rahui tapu over their taonga Rangitapu (The Headland) and Te Wai O Taniwha (the Mermaid Pools). 

A rahui tapu has officially been in place at Rangitapu (the Headland) and Te Wai O Taniwha (Mermaid Pools) at Matapouri for a week now.

Our hapū and kaitiaki of this rohe, Te Whānau ā Rangiwhakaahu have applied this rahui tapū (cultural closure) to restore the mauri (wellbeing) of these areas.
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Please be considerate and adhere to this cultural closure by staying off the headland we know as Rangtitapu.

Te Pou Rahui Rangitapu
Te Whānau a Rangiwhakaahu hapū 
Ngatiwai ki Matapouri.