NESSIE KUKA #113
Notes for Rena Environment Court
Acknowledgements:
I would firstly like to acknowledge all our whanau of Matakana and Rangiwaea and all the whanau throughout
the moana and afar who came to assist us with the cleanup, the nannies who took charge in feeding and
looking after our well being both spiritually and physically. Our kaumatua, Blakely Pacific and our iwi of Ngai
Te Rangi which allowed us to put the stake in the ground in terms of governance and how things would run on
our island with the disaster.
Oil
1. Sunday 9th October, tangata whenua came together on the ocean beach to discuss how we were going
to deal with the disaster, we picked 6 fish bins of tuatua because we didn’t know when our next kai of
tuatua would be
2. Monday 10th October, Oil reached the island the extent was horrific and many tears were shed. DOC
representatives came to assess the impacts on the manu
3. Tuesday 11th October Although we were told to keep away from the beach, whanau were not happy to
sit around and do nothing so we organized our own voluntary labour force and we called to the
whanau and made our way to Opureora Marae. We had karakia and planned our way forward we
discussed H & S, and our whanau and our marae gave gloves, plastic bags, vehicles and petrol, face
masks and kai
4. We decided that tamariki would not be safe in this dangerous hazardous environment; they were
confused by that decision.
5. Our nannies prepared kai from the marae and our own whare. Two of our kuia Lily Murray 80years old
and Annie Smith 75years old came with us to pick-up oil everyday.
th
6. Wednesday 12 October –
Matakana Island Oceanbeach was identified by officials as a non-facilities beach so was seen as “not
as important as Mt Maunganui & Papamoa”. With help being not available from the Mainland the
haukainga were determined to clean-up our beach
7. We worked by ourselves with no assistance until early November when donations from Ngai Te Rangi,
Greenpeace, New Zealand Defence Forces/army, navy and air force services, Maritime New Zealand
and our Island whanau from town arrived. The provision of PPE suits, gumboots, gloves, masks,
rubbish bags and bins, decontamination sites, kai etc.
8. Our oceanbeach is home to many taonga species as well as critically endangered species (NZ Dotterel).
The Oil spill had a disastrous impact on our environment and ecology. Shellfish, seabirds, penguins all
suffered.
9. Our Pataka was severely impacted upon. Like our whanau from Motiti we absolutely rely on our
kaimoana for our sustenance (No unemployment benefit, everyone has a job and relies on our
traditional pataka to survive for day to day life).
10. Friday 2nd December the first paid workers from Fulton Hogan were sent over to assist us in our
cleanup. Until this time we had primarily relied on whanau/haukainga volunteer efforts. Our whanau
became supervisors and they in turn were paid.
Debris
1. 9th January Debris and containers started washing up at the oceanbeach, 5 containers, timber, bags of
milk powder, baling twine, wheels, rice packets, oiled wool, polymer beads, sofa cushions, household
furniture and kids toys littered the whole 28kms of our beach.
2. The debris event became the responsibility of Braemar Howells/the salvage company and the oil
response came under Maritime New Zealand.
3. Tangata whenua operation teams were coordinated by ourselves from the Matakana Island Fire
Station with the full support of Blakely Pacific. All volunteers/workers were then paid by Braemar.
4. February 2012 Maritime New Zealand advised the withdrawal of Fulton Hogan and their machinery.
5. The bead recovery with Braemar continued to the end of 2012.
6. After much negotiation and 6months later, the Swedish Insurance Club asked Matakana Island to
provide a full and final lump sum figure to continue with the bead clean up operations. We soon
realized that our idea of a final clean up sum was a far cry from what the insurers had in mind.
7. We completed a Cultural Impact Assessment for Regional Council in 2013
8. The sum agreement was concluded in July. We received full payment of 170k plus GST later in that
month and we immediately resumed work with island whanau at the helm.
9. We commissioned and received our own scientific survey with internationally recognized scientists
“Matakana Island Coastal Survey – Marine Debris” in December 2014. Although other reports
completed by council and the owners implied that the plastic beads were safe with no impacts on
wildlife our independent report indicated that the beads collected from Matakana Island had high
levels of carcinogenic and PAH compounds and these will remain toxic and well above “safe’ levels
due to the nature of the constant reburying due to weather and tides.
10. During storms (particularly easterly storms) we always get debris washing up and more beads
appearing.
11. We concluded our operations in February 2015, due to running out of money.
Recommendations
We strongly feel that the Rena and all the debris be removed in its entirety, we constantly see evidence of
debris washing up on Matakana and feel that our mokopuna will be seriously affected and the environment
compromised if the wreck and debris are left on Otaiti.
“ The most affected area was Matakana Island which 27 km stretch of ocean side beach was badly affected by debris.
Locals of the island worked day and night to clean the beach and return it to its natural state. The local community of
Matakana were devastated with the disaster as it has largely affected the native food source. Cleaning this particular
stretch of beach is still underway and will take several years to return it to the way it was. – Wikipedia”
I provide as evidence; Matakana Island Cultural Impact Assessment, Matakana and Rangiwaea Islands Hapu
Management Plan “a response by our 5 hapu to identify the cultural, heritage, social, ecological and economic
matters that are important to us as ahi ka roa and kaitiaki of Matakana and Rangiwaea Islands” and the
Matakana Island Coastal Survey – Marine Debris
“While New Zealand has not been previously exposed to an environmental disaster of such proportions, the
grounding of the MV Rena has catalyzed many to question the safety of the environment amidst a rapidly
expanding national navigational infrastructure.
As the Port of Tauranga has gained consent to deepen and widen its shipping channel and has secured
contractual agreements with major shipping conglomerates, securing New Zealands position as a mega
container shipping hub for the South Pacific, the impetus for New Zealand to progress its interests in
kaitiakitanga has never been more imminent”.
Ka Huri