Source: Dr Alvina Edwards and Wiki Martin
Kaitorete Spit is ancestral whenua. It carries the whakapapa of Wairewa and Taumutu, the footprints of our tūpuna, and a responsibility we hold today on their behalf. That responsibility does not end at the boundary of a runway or a launch pad. It extends to what is actually done on that land, who benefits from it, and who is harmed by it.
We support the Tāwhaki partnership between Wairewa, Te Taumutu Rūnanga, and the Crown insofar as it develops civilian technologies and services, aviation research, scientific innovation, and opportunities that build our people’s future without costing others. But we are not willing to stand by while that partnership drifts, launch by launch, into becoming a node in someone else’s war machine.
That is not a hypothetical concern. It is the lived experience of whānau at Māhia.
What happened at Māhia
Rocket Lab initially told iwi at Māhia that its work would be civilian, satellites for peaceful purposes, nothing more. That assurance did not hold. Rocket Lab has since taken on significant investment from, and contracts with, United States defence-related companies, and a growing share of its activity is now defence-related. Among its customers is Black Sky Technology, whose satellite imagery Rocket Lab has helped launch from Māhia. Black Sky’s high-resolution imagery has been supplied to a range of clients, including Israel, and reporting indicates that imagery of this kind has been used to support military targeting in Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians, among them thousands of children, have been killed.
Local hapū at Māhia say plainly that they were betrayed. They were told one thing and given another. The land was offered for peace and, in part, used for war.
We will not let that happen again at Kaitorete, and we will not let it happen to us.
Why this matters now
Global rivalry between the United States and China is intensifying across the Pacific, and Tāwhaki itself is now being spoken of publicly in exactly those terms, as a site pivoting toward “defence demands, both domestically and internationally,” courting NATO’s interest through STARLIFT, and positioning itself for the Pentagon’s push to rapidly replace satellites lost in a war in orbit. This is not a distant, abstract shift. It is happening at the pace of press releases and ministerial briefings, while the people whose whenua is at stake are told about it after the fact, if at all.
We believe that Wairewa Rūnanga does not want to be caught up in taking sides in superpower conflicts that could kill thousands, if not millions, of innocent people. We do not want to support, host, or in any way become part of anyone’s killing machine, American, Chinese, or anyone else’s. We seek to be peacemakers, not warmakers. That is not a slogan. It is a position with consequences, and we are prepared to hold it.
What we are asking for
We are not asking Wairewa Rūnanga to reject Tāwhaki, or to reject growth, science, or partnership. We are asking that the line be drawn now, in writing, before it is drawn for us by others: a contractor, a minister, a boardroom in another country. Civilian purpose is welcome on Kaitorete. War is not.
Attempts to get clarity on this issue through Official Information Act requests with the Crown have not been successful, hence this motion that will be moved at the Wairewa Rūnanga meeting at the end of this month:
Motion
“That Wairewa Rūnanga welcomes the Tāwhaki partnership between Te Taumutu Rūnanga and the Crown for the development of civilian technologies and services at the Tāwhaki Aerospace Centre on the ancestral whenua of Kaitorete but opposes any activity on our ancestral land that directly or indirectly contributes to war or defence-related activities.”
Explanatory notes to go with the Motion:
- Rivalry between the United States and China is increasing in the South Pacific. Our rūnanga does not want to be caught up in taking sides in superpower conflicts that could kill thousands, if not millions, of innocent people. Wairewa Rūnanga does not want to support or become part of anyone’s killing machine.
- Wairewa Rūnanga seeks to be peacemakers, not warmakers.
- Wairewa Rūnanga does not want our ancestral land to be used for developments that support war, as is occurring on the ancestral lands of local hapū at Māhia in Te Tai Rāwhiti. Rocket Lab initially told iwi that it was not interested in defence-related activities and would launch rockets carrying satellites exclusively for civilian purposes. Rocket Lab has since attracted significant investment from, and contracts with, United States defence-related companies, and much of its work is now defence-related. For example, Rocket Lab has launched satellites for Black Sky Technology from Māhia. Black Sky provides high-resolution satellite imagery to a range of customers, including Israel. It has been reported that such imagery has been used to support military targeting in Gaza, where the conflict has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians, including many thousands of children.
- Local hapū say they have been betrayed by Rocket Lab. We refuse to be betrayed by the Crown in a similar way on the ancestral whenua of Kaitorete.
Dr Alvina Edwards and Wiki Martin are registered members of Wairewa Rūnanga.