Sheryl Paekau intends to retire from her role as Kaiwhakamahere at Waikato District Council early next year, but she’s finding it difficult to do. She says there’s so much more work to do to assist Māori in the community and across Aotearoa, to utilise their Māori land and provide Papakaainga Housing. Her current role within the Policy team at Waikato District Council offers insight into planning for Māori the community. This is Sheryl’s journey to becoming Kaiwhakamahere.
Ko Sheryl Paekau taaku ingoa. Ko Ngaati Tamainupo, Ngaati Whauroa, Ngaati Rora,Ngaati Kinohaku ahau. Ko Waikato me Ngaati Maniapoto ooku Iwi. No Ngaaruaawaahia taaku Kaainga.
I whakapapa to Waikato and Ngaati Manaiapoto and have lived in Ngaaruaawaahia for 57 years.
I’ve enjoyed working in local government for the last 37 years, and have held different jobs in local Government, ranging from Hydatid Control to managing a team of Regulatory Control Officers. After a significant restructure, I took the opportunity to take a new direction and commence study in planning.
I moved into a position in the Planning administration team, and this gave me more knowledge of the RMA and the need to provide for Maaori resources. I was offered a scholarship in Iwi Environment Management and at the same time my parents gave me responsibility of their interests in Maaori land. It was a lot to learn but all the subjects ran together. What I was learning reinforced my existing Maaori knowledge and how it needed to fit into the planning environment.
I didn’t feel that I chose the kaiwhakamahere role, it kind of fell into place and I think it chose me. I could see that what I was learning in my study wasn’t happening in the planning environment for Maaori. I developed a strong interest in the utilisation of Maaori land and I needed to know how it could be enabled through Council policy.
Section 6e of the RMA provides for more enabling rules for Maaori ancestral land utilisation and protection of Maaori waahi tapu through the district plan. When I think of “recognising and providing” for things that are important to Maaori, I think of whakapapa. Everything in existence has a whakapapa and we need to know its whakapapa in order to look after it, to “recognise it and in order to provide for it.
The Policy Team at WDC is currently led by Keri Davis-Millar (MNZPI). The Policy team enthusiastically supported the Kaupapa through extensive engagement with the community. As a team, they attended Marae visits, drop-in sessions, customer enquiries, land visits, and papakaainga workshops occurred.
The policy team took nine years to develop their proposed District Plan, and so far there’ve been no appeals received against Maaori land utilisation. Sheryl believes this is because in her district Tangata whenua are enabled to sustainably use and develop Maaori Land, especially for papakaainga and commercial activity is provided for in a way and at a scale that supports the occupation, development and use of Maaori land and meets the needs of its owners.
The Waikato District Plan originally had some provisions for papakaainga under a Paa Zone which had been given to all Marae in the district, Hopuhopu and about 5 Maaori land blocks in the district. Sheryl believes this was limiting because it could only benefit those families that could whakapapa to those blocks. It was thought that papakaainga could be built on these blocks for the benefit of any Maaori. Provisions were also carried over from the Franklin District Plan for papakaainga, where if you were within 1Km of a Marae or you could get a letter of support from the Marae committee enabling one to do so. This also was limiting Maaori to utilise their lands.
Sheryl found that the bigger problem is the complexities of Maaori ownership of Maaori land, which places sometimes insurmountable barriers to Maaori development.
In her special role as Kaiwhakamahere Sheryl has found that there are five additional challenges that collective Maaori landowners need to address before they can progress to a building consent stage. There are in addition to a usual RMA process and are as follows:
The team wanted to assist Maaori landowners through the process and saw this as a way of benefiting the district and Maaori communities. A hui was called with representatives from Maaori Land Court, Waikato Regional Council, Te Puni Kokiri, Waikato District Council, Te Kopua 2B3 Incorporation and Waikato Tainui as the main contributors with Future Proof and others from Hamilton, Waipa Councils who remained as supporters.
Te Puni Kokiri took up the lead and the Waikato Agencies Papakaainga Forum (JAG – joint agency group) was established with funding to support workshops and commissioning of the production of the Waikato Papakaainga Housing Toolkit “Te Kete Paaraha Mo Nga Papakaainga Ki Waikato. The toolkit was to benefit the wider community because Te Puni Kokiri, Maaori Land Court and the Waikato Regional Council served the region from Hauraki to Taupo. Our Council (Rules), Maaori Land Court (ML Governance) and Regional Council (3 Waters Infrastructure) contributed “In Kind” from resources and staff expertise.
Sheryl says, “we have the same Kaupapa but perhaps have our own pathways of achieving outcomes and through collaboration, parties commit to sharing resources and information so that an integrated approach is achieved in the areas of key/common priorities. Our overall interest is to introduce the concept of an NPS about the utilisation of Maaori land.”
Including Permitted Activity Rules on all Maaori Land in the Waikato District Plan to Benefit Papakaainga has been the achievement of many. These include the Policy Team, the Iwi Reference Group and the Waikato Agencies Papakaainga Forum who supported the Kaupapa through the Proposed District Plan process. ‘’I especially want to thank them and all of the Maaori landowners and whanau who contributed to the journey.”
As she leaves her role behind, Sheryl sees key tasks ahead for the next Kaiwhakamahere:
Papakaainga workshop success in Ngaaruawaahia
