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“Herald's "Dominance" Framing Reveals Colonial Mindset in Mana Whenua Coverage” - 10 July 2025

Kia ora whānau. Ko Ivor Jones ahau, ko ahau te Māori Green Lantern. (Hello everyone. I am Ivor Jones, I am the Māori Green Lantern.)

Ivor Jones The Māori Green Ltn

10 Jul 2025 — 6 min read

When colonial media frames indigenous rights as "dominance," we witness the insidious machinery of white supremacist thinking at work. The New Zealand Herald's headline about Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei's Environment Court victory reduces sacred mana whenua relationships to crude power plays, revealing how mainstream journalism continues to misrepresent Māori worldviews through a colonial lens.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/property/ngati-whatua-orakei-wins-environment-court-appeal-dominance-over-land-water-around-westhaven-marina-recognised/IZ2HLDOBHZBOFHT5G2XRGN2K64/

Understanding Mana Whenua in Colonial Courts

To understand this issue, we must first grasp what mana whenua means in te ao Māori. Mana whenua represents the spiritual and cultural authority that comes from whakapapa (genealogical connections) to whenua (land), maintained through ahi kā (continuous occupation) and expressed through kaitiakitanga (guardianship responsibilities). This is not about "dominance" but about sacred relationships that predate colonisation.

The significance of this case extends far beyond Westhaven Marina. Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei are the tangata whenua of central Tāmaki Makaurau, holding mana over land and sea through take tupuna (ancestral relationships), take raupatu (taking of land through traditional warfare), ahi kā (unbroken occupation) and tuku whenua (traditional gifting of land).

The historical context reveals the colonial violence that created these disputes. Chief Āpihai Te Kawau signed the Treaty of Waitangi at Manukau Harbour on 20 March 1840, inviting Governor Hobson to live in Auckland for protection, but this led to devastating land loss2. Ngāti Whātua sold 3,000 acres to the Crown for £341, but six months later, just 44 acres were sold by the Crown for £24,275, with the remainder sold for over £72,000.

Colonial Courts Adjudicating Indigenous Rights

The Environment Court case arose from Auckland Council's Eke Panuku Development winning resource consent in 2019 to expand Westhaven Marina, with conditions requiring engagement with 19 hapū and iwi. Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei challenged these conditions, arguing they should be recognised as having the strongest connection and take a lead role in mana whenua engagement.

This matters profoundly to Māori because it represents the ongoing struggle to have indigenous worldviews recognised within colonial legal frameworks. The case forces iwi to argue their cultural authority in courts that fundamentally misunderstand the concepts they're adjudicating.

The scope of analysis must include how this case reflects broader patterns of colonial divide-and-conquer tactics, neoliberal development pressures, and media complicity in misrepresenting indigenous rights struggles.

Exposing Colonial Language and Divide-and-Conquer Tactics

The Herald's use of "dominance" represents a fundamental misunderstanding of mana whenua. This colonial framing reduces sacred relationships to power struggles, playing directly into white supremacist narratives that portray indigenous rights as threats to established order.

The Environment Court decision itself reveals the colonial system's limitations. The judges noted they were "struck at just how little evidence there is of use and occupation by any of the s274 parties of the lands and waters around Westhaven over the past 200 or more years", yet this observation ignores the colonial violence that displaced these communities in the first place.

Crown Settlement Policies Creating Manufactured Conflicts

The court acknowledged the real culprit behind these disputes: the Crown's Treaty settlement policies that emerged in the late 1990s, creating tensions through "competition for access to a relatively limited pool of Crown lands and assets". This represents classic divide-and-conquer tactics - the Crown creates artificial scarcity, then sits back while iwi fight each other for crumbs.

The broader legal battle reveals this pattern clearly. The High Court previously declined to declare Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei as having sole mana whenua rights in Auckland after a seven-year legal battle, forcing them to fight expensive court battles just to have their existing rights recognised.

Neoliberal Development Agenda Behind Marina Expansion

The Westhaven Marina expansion represents typical neoliberal development - privatising public space for elite recreational use while tokenising indigenous consultation. The fact that Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei can "look across to Westhaven from their marae, yet had to fight other iwi whose marae are more than 100km away" exposes the absurdity of the consultation process.

This pattern repeats across Aotearoa, with hapū fighting fast-tracked marina proposals that deprive local communities of their voice, while developers exploit legal loopholes to bypass meaningful consultation.

Media Complicity in Misrepresenting Indigenous Rights

The Herald's coverage exemplifies how mainstream media perpetuates colonial narratives. By framing mana whenua as "dominance," they reduce indigenous rights to power competition, playing into white supremacist fears about Māori "taking over."

This framing ignores the underlying colonial violence and presents iwi disputes as natural conflicts rather than manufactured problems created by Crown policies. The media becomes complicit in divide-and-conquer tactics by focusing on inter-iwi competition rather than the colonial system creating these conflicts.

Reinforcing Colonial Legal Supremacy

This case reinforces dangerous precedents about indigenous rights being subject to colonial court approval. While Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei achieved an important victory, the broader implication is that mana whenua must be validated by colonial institutions rather than recognised as inherent.

The community impact extends beyond legal technicalities. As deputy chairman Ngarimu Blair noted, the process requires "significant resources and time" while "benefiting no one, other than those who are claiming a say in the rohe of other iwi".

This connects to larger patterns of colonial legal systems undermining indigenous sovereignty while creating the illusion of "consultation" and "partnership." The real winners are neoliberal developers who exploit these divisions while expanding privatised recreation facilities for the wealthy.

Reclaiming Indigenous Narratives

The Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei victory represents important progress in asserting mana whenua rights, but we must reject colonial framings that reduce these sacred relationships to "dominance" narratives. The real issue is not iwi competing for recognition, but colonial systems forcing indigenous peoples to fight each other for rights that should never have been questioned.

The solution requires dismantling the colonial legal frameworks that create these conflicts, not celebrating when iwi occasionally win within them. We must demand that mainstream media learn to discuss indigenous rights without resorting to colonial power language.

As tangata whenua, we call for recognition of mana whenua as inherent rather than court-granted, and for solidarity between iwi against the colonial systems that divide us.

Ko te aroha, ko te rangimārie
Ivor Jones, The Māori Green Lantern

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References:

https://ngatiwhatuaorakei.com

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