Despite SKP coming to an agreement with the developers to give up their fight against the construction of a marina at Kennedy Point, the Ngati Paoa Trust Board gives no such undertaking.

In 2016, a resource consent for this marina was granted by the Environment Court based on the evidence of one person of Ngati Paoa who did not hold Rangatiratanga status.

The Trust Board has been silenced in its desire to present a Cultural Values Assessment (CVA) by successive colonial courts which goes against all the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Tauranga Environmental Society vs Transpower New Zealand).

The Trust Board has been alongside SKP (the community of Waiheke Island) for the last 4 years waiting for an opportunity to present its cultural objections to the courts. This opportunity has been continually denied to those who are kaitiaki.

The Trust Board Co chair, Danella Roebeck says the recent headlines of ‘white privilege’ can be applied in this instance, as money has been the driving force in this whole fiasco; a marina SHOULD NOT be built through the gateway of Putiki Bay.

The Trust Board stands in solidarity with the Protect Putiki - Kennedy Point occupation by our iwi and the wider community of Waiheke Island.

We call on our PSGE the Ngati Paoa Iwi Trust to join us and publicly state that the resource consent issued in 2016 was wrong and should be revisited. The Trust Board states, “Ngati Paoa to be unified against the constant degradation of Ngati Paoa significant sites, which is what ‘Tino Rangatiratanga’ and ‘Mana Motuhake’ demands of us for the well-being of Ngati Paoa.”

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