Read on Twitter
Shout out to Tūpuna Maunga Authority for the amazing taonga they are protecting and healing. Visited three since this lockdown ended, each unique & beautiful. I am learning more about them and what they mean, thx to TMA’s mahi. Here’s the view from Maungakiekie this morning. 1/
I was v fortunate to have a workshop with Dominic & Nick from TMA earlier this week which has helped to build my understanding further. Their work is all to heal the harms of the past. I look at the desire line tracks on craters now & see the scars, not a way to walk. 2/
My visit to Uluru in February was a tipping point in my understanding - these are not just geological artifacts, they have huge cultural & environmental importance. At Uluru it’s recommended you go thru the cultural centre before getting closer. View from middle of Yulara 3/
Uluru dominates the landscape. I imagine those who live there, without the connection of indigeneity, take it for granted as I have w our maunga. I’ve lived in AKL my whole 43 years and it was only through travel overseas, in my 20s, that I started to see them consciously. 4/
You can’t take photos in the cultural centre, or of parts of the rock as you walk around. These are effectively sacred texts and to photograph them and reproduce them elsewhere out of context would profane them. I may not have this 100% correct, welcome more informed views. 5/
Back to AKL’s maunga - just as Uluru is not a big rock there for you to climb (mercifully closed to climbers a year ago) the maunga aren’t actually parks. The tihi (summit) and crater are sacred. Quiet enjoyment & reflection are appropriate & welcome. Fireworks are not 6/
Take the new boardwalk on Maungawhau. It’s been v carefully designed to last up to 100 years, w no concrete foundations to allow the land beneath to heal. It reminded me of many of the viewing areas at Uluru, sitting on the earth not in it. 7/
A million visitors a year to the tihi of Maungawhau carving out paths that damage the sacred area and archaeological sites. The boardwalk mitigates that harm - it allows people to go there still. TMA could just close these areas off, instead they are working hard not to. 8/
The difference between Maungawhau and Maungakiekie is rather stark, currently. Eg After years of subtle work by Friends of Maungawhau and local Māori no one goes in the crater. Not yet the same at OTH; there were stone cairns in there today. 9/
What we have here are astonishing treasures, geologically, culturally, environmentally. The beauty of the views from the peaks are only a part of that. One of my kids asked me if there were any kiwi on one as we walked - not yet. Imagine that one day though, as... 10/
... they are cloaked in native bush in line with TMA’s vision. It will be a scattering of green jewels across our city, refracting in our neighbourhoods with kererū and tūī, beautiful places of repose and connection with whenua. And v lucky we will all be.
I just remembered another aha moment from Uluru. I understood (as much as I can as Pākehā) the duty (wrong word really) of those of Anangu culture to care for country. And the pain, shame, of not being able to. And the injustice of keeping them from that duty. 11/
And I thought about what that might be like for tangata whenua. I look at TMA, and I see people, an organisation, dedicated to fulfilling a duty they have been unable to serve for too long, not by their own choice. I feel v privileged to be able to watch and support this. /FIN
Ps I hope those who need to learn it, as I do, do so by listening to tangata whenua who know this far better than I ever can, and have your aha moments from that process. I should have listened better.
