Rena Cultural Impact Assessment:
Whangaparāoa, Waihau Bay, Raukokore Area
East Cape Region
What were the cultural impacts of the Rena grounding?
Areas that were particularly affected which need to be addressed?
What did we learn from the grounding?
Will what we have learned help our communities moving forward.
Will what we have learned be taken account of by the authorities charged with responding to such events.
Cultural Imapcts:
This is our turangawaewae.The majority of us have been born and bred here. We are tangata whenua, we smell, we
breathe the fresh air of our environment. The Rena grounding brought an intrusion of our privacy, our domain. It was if
no one really knew who we were or no one wanted to know that we even existed. We felt part of our mana, our
whenua, our takutai moana, our turangawaewae had been stripped from us.
Personnel from various Government, Regional and Local Departments were deployed to tell us how they thought we
should do the job of cleaning up our area. The intentions were good but the assumptions from many of the agencies
were very demeaning and degrading for us. Even our basic procedures of our kaumātua being asked to speak were
pushed aside as “tikanga” wasn’t really the priority. They assumed we the local people, were OK and didn’t really need
any help or the feeling was “out of sight, out of mind.
Communication was poor.
We all live in small Maori rural settlements. We have our hapu, our marae, our own structures for communicating.
When there is a tangihanga everyone is notified via the”grapevine”. But there was little to no attempt of using these
protocols as lines of communication.
We from Whangaparāoa had to travel to Waihau Bay fire station to access any form of communication and any form of
gear. We felt that we were an afterthought. Like we didn’t exist and no-one cared anyway. Whangaparāoa, Cape
Runaway, yes they’re part of Waihau Bay aren’t they?
Again, all we wanted to do was to pick up gear, develop a simple plan so we weren’t doubling up and get on with the
job. But, the first day we assembled we were inundated with various agencies all taking up to 10mins explaining how
they thought we should do this that and everything else. Some of the information was useful but others were time
consuming and a waste of time.
To add to the calamity we were asked to complete paperwork for Braemar a company hired to employ workers. All our
people wanted to do was to get out there and clean up our beaches, not be held up by being told that we couldn’t start
until all this paperwork was completed. Furthermore ,Braemar weren’t interested in allowing payments to be made as
donations to our various local marae. They just didn’t want to know. The result being that even to this day very few
payments have been made to people in our area. However, payment was not a priority to us, as all we wanted to do
was to clean up our beaches.
This type of treatment of our people trampled on our wairua, our mana. There was no apology, no attempt to remedy
the hurt only more questions and more paperwork.
Excellent support from volunteers: This was a real plus with so many people
giving of their time to help with the clean-up. There were locals, visitors, tourists, holiday makers who have camped in
our area for years as well as DOC workers and Regional Council personnel. Everyone pulled together and gave of their
best to restore our shores to what they were pre-Rena.
We were told that children were not to be used to help with the clean-up. What a joke. Our beaches are their
playground, their kapata kai, their taiao. Of course we couldn’t tell them that they had to be 15 years and above to
help. They are our future, they needed to see, to hear, to smell, to witness the effects of this environment disaster. This
was very much an experience for them as well as for us, the adults. There were many educational outcomes for all our
mokopuna. One of the most important being respect. Respect of our land, our sea, our beach our tikanga, our whānau,
our hapu, our whānau.
How were we affected?
 We couldn’t gather kaimoana.
 There were instructions given for the handling of birdlife, but the “powers to be” didn’t really know the distance
from Tauranga or Whakatane to here. So a great number of birds ended up in the skip bins.
 A deep freeze to house all the birdlife wasn’t delivered until well after the clean up. Meanwhile our man who
offered to collect ended up with his own personal freezer having to accommodate these species.
 Kai moana is always a must with hosting on our marae.
 Our tangihanga, our hui whānau, our hui-ā kura etc.
 Some of our whānau are crayfisherman and commercial fisherman. Our “rahui” meant they couldn’t go out, they
therefore lost income. They too offered their boats to ferry people to less accessible areas.
 Whānau were disappointed with how some locals were paid and others not. The “sharks” who took the
opportunity to cash in on the clean up did so with no thought or care for those, who toiled in the background and
on the beaches.
 Again, respect and tikanga were ignored and left a sour taste for some.
 We were inundated with people wanting “reports.” It was a real “hoha.”
 Scientists from Waikato were very helpful and it was a joy to meet and allow my senior students to work with
people who were aware of our cultural needs and tikanga.
 Land ownership in our area is predominantly still under whānau control and all our manuhiri had to be made
aware that access had to be gained from the respective whānau prior to any jobs being done.
 At the end of the day, we had to sit and wonder what did we really get out of this whole exercise?
 One container did have butter and today, to most of our children that’s what they remember about the RENA.
 We were visited by representatives of the ship’s owners. They were able to visit our beach with our mokopuna
and hear first hand what our taiao means to them.
 This visit was well appreciated by us albeit well after the event.
 As at Whangaparaoa the experience of tangata whenua at Waihau Bay/Raukokore was the same. Our people all
coming from common ancestry, and common associations to this day.
 When oil and debri first arrived on our shores, calls to Maritime New Zealand for assistance was as devasting as
the arrival of the Oil and Debri itself. We may as well have asked the cows in the paddock for help.
 Despite this our communities rallied and began organising ourselves with what resources we could muster and
got on with the job despite Maritime NZ and all the Health and safety rules thrown at us
 .
 One agency that stood out as providing good support for us was the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and in
particular the Maori Liason group established in the Eastern Bay. Not far behind was the Nga Whenua Rahui
group.
 Both groups making use of local networks established over a number of years, and recognising that local
communities already have established relationships among themselves and do not need others from outside
telling them what to do.
 Providing the local communities with support and allowing them to make decisions for themselves.
What did we learn from the grounding
 This was an extraordinary event, not likely to be repeated in a hurry though the risks are still very high with the
Port of Tauranga continuing its expansion, and the risks of oil drilling in the area.
 Our communities cannot rely too heavily on outside agencies to provide rapid assistance.
 Outside Agencies do not necessarily respond well.
 Tele Communication systems need to be improved for the welfare of our communities
 We as small communities need to better prepare ourselves for similar events no matter how infrequent they may
be.
Will what we have learned help our communities moving forward.
 Yes we believe so.
 One of the first areas we dealt with as a Community was to improve communications.
One of the shortcomings that was identified was the inability of the Regional Council staff vehicles to
communicate with our emergency services despite having the VHF radios on board. We believe this is now being
rectified.
 As a community we applied to Vodafone for the installation of a cell phone Tower at Waihau Bay. We were
successful and this process is ongoing .
 We have established the Waihau Bay Community Trust to take over formal responsibility from the Management
group that came together to manage the Oil Spill emergency at Waihau Bay/Whangaparaoa
 The Community Trust is currently examining options to establish storage facilities at Waihau Bay for housing
additional emergency equipment for any future event and including Civil Defence, Fire Service, Ambulance Service
Marine Rescue etc.
Will what we have learned be taken account of by the authorities charged with responding to such events
 We can only live in hope.
 Building good relationships and networks did come through as being of greatest value during this exercise. If the
authorities that be do not understand this important issue then history will repeat itself. Except on the Coast
perhaps.
 The Regional Council improvements to their VHF system is a positive.
To assist us in this assessment report, we conducted a quick survey of our communities raising a number question
which helped confirm various issues for us from our communities.
WAIHAU BAY COMMUNITY TRUST
The Trust conducted a Local Survey to address how people felt about the disaster and to explore potential directions
moving forward.
An interpretation of the results.
No of Respondents: 127
The Questions were:
How did you find out about the debris from the Rena coming ashore?
90 % discovered via the grapevine and/or witnessed it themselves.
Were you involved in the clean-up?
90% were involved in some way with the clean up.
How much of your time was involved in the clean-up?
Approx 50% of respondents spent up to a week on the clean up.
Approx 50% spent between 2 weeks and up to a month with a few spending additional time on an ad hoc basis.
How do you think that outside agencies responded to help local efforts?
Approx 70% considered the assistance to be Adequate/Excellent. However further analysis of these results revealed that if
separate timelines of events over the clean up were included, the respondents would have flagged a greater negative
response for the early stages of the clean-up effort from outside agencies. The initial response appears to have been
balanced however by the efforts of the input from the local community and organization, and this may have influenced
their decisions. However appox 30% had a dim view no matter what.
The Waihau Bay Community Trust has been established and the question was asked where might our future resources
be directed.
The overwhelming response was to support/respond to future emergencies, and to support the Foreshore/Marine
environment and Education in the Marine Environment.
Tangata whenua were asked how they felt about this disaster?
100% said they had negative feelings about this disaster.
And finally, should the Rena be removed altogether?
83% said to remove it and 17 % were happy for it to stay.