‘How do the people break through?’ – third of Māori land considered landlocked

Source: Radio New Zealand

Up to a third of Māori land is considered landlocked, meaning owners have no physical access to land they own without obtaining the consent of neighbouring owners.

The Outdoor Access Commission Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa released its first report on the state of public land access in Aotearoa last week, which identified landlocked whenua as one of the biggest challenges to public access in 2025.

The report divides land in Aotearoa into three types, private (non-tangata whenua) land which makes up 51.8 percent, state-owned land (44 percent) and private tangata whenua land with only 4.3 percent.

Tāmaki Makaurau regional field advisor Dot Dalziell said up to a third of Māori landholding is locked, but the problem was particularly acute in the Taihape area, where it is more than 70 percent.

Māori land is often very significant in connecting New Zealanders to the outdoors, so landlocking impacted all New Zealanders, she said.

“What it can give rise to is a very ironic situation or many ironic situations where, you know, we’re going into negotiations with mana whenua who have responsibility for land, whatever that relationship might be legally and we’re asking for public access or support for public access or hosting of public access. The irony being that, you know, maybe not on that bit of land, but other other parts of the of their whenua, they don’t have access themselves.”

Herenga ā Nuku strategic relationships manager Doug Macredie said the commission thought of tangata whenua land in several different ways.

First there is “ahu whenua” or “ture whenua” – land that survived confiscation and has been retained in Māori ownership. This land may or may not have legal public access, but may also operate within informal community protocols allowing informal access or “access by protocol”, he said.

Second is land returned to Māori by way of Treaty settlements. These often have public access clauses and requirements that remain once the land is returned.

Third is land where owners and governance bodies are not identified or established, much of which is administered by Te Tumu Paeroa, the Office of the Māori Trustee.

“We acknowledge fully here at Herenga ā Nuku that mana whenua, mana whenua whānui, mana whenua a hapū, mana whenua a tangata, kind of overrides this idea of legal ownership. And we as Māori all understand that our tribal jurisdictions and our border connections with other hapū and iwi covers all the whenua in Aotearoa.

“Now, it’s outside of the legal framework, but of course, tuturu in our ngākau, in our manawa, in our whakapapa is that understanding that the whole of Aotearoa is under the banner of what I call mana whenua whānui,” Macredie said.

Macredie is a trustee of several blocks of whenua – one of which was landlocked – which he said meant going “cap in hand” to neighbours to find ways to access it.

“My mum, my uncles, my koroua and so forth, never, ever got to go across that land… and not that it’s not possible that I can reverse that with helicopters and things like that, but unless you’ve got capability, resourcing, knowledge and support, how do the people break through even to get in touch with their land, to touch it, to feel it, to see it, let alone build a trust or a governance board and undertake initiatives to do stuff on and with the land?”

Macredie said another term he’s heard is “DOC locked”, with whenua Māori completely surrounded by Department of Conservation land.

“There are different degrees of landlocked. So in the case of one particular block that I know of, it technically has paper roads and technically you can walk, clamber, climb, scurry, burrow your way through to the block and stay within the boundaries of these paper roads. If you’ve got all the gear, ropes, crampons and half a day to get there. Whereas if you were to go across a neighbouring landowner’s paddock, you’d be there in 20 minutes,” he said.

DOC locked or semi-locked land blocks were often used by neighbouring private landowners, for grazing and forestry where boundaries slightly converged, and also by recreationists “in the know”, he said.

“For example, the block that I’m a trustee on has a beautiful, beautiful waterfall on it. People go to that waterfall, the people, the recreationists that are in the know just go walking straight across our block, which is not necessarily a problem to us. But that’s a typical situation when you’re not empowered or able to manage and govern your block for all those reasons, then it will just default to other uses by people that are enabled and empowered to get there and use it.”

Macredie said while landlocking was a massive problem for Māori owners, many of these land blocks were beautiful, remote, rugged and pristine which could be an opportunity, particularly in ecotourism.

But to take advantage of any opportunity took time, expertise and resource, he said.

“The issues are not all about lines on maps, etc., but they’re also about awareness and capability and resourcing for the people… to make connection with lands, to govern, to manage and to undertake initiatives and there are immense barriers to that. And so it’s not the role of our agency to address all of that because we’re only dealing with the public access element.

“But we are fully aware of how the public access dimension and the aspirations and the reality of tangata whenua relative to land can and do work together when managed and guided in the right way.”

‘Building the spirit of our country’

Macredie said only a relatively small amount of New Zealand’s land was public, which was divided again into what was accessible and what was not.

“You’ve got to say, well, what is the definition of accessible? What’s accessible for somebody who’s an experienced tramper with all the gear and the latest Subaru four wheel drive and enough money to put petrol in the tank is not necessarily accessible for every other person.

“So accessibility, freedom to enjoy and to be in and around this beautiful land for all New Zealanders, and particularly with some with some pronounced take (issues) from a tangata whenua lens, I think it’s a major, major challenge. But it’s also an incredible opportunity around building the spirit of our country and also releasing opportunities through ecotourism or other community initiatives… that are both good for the people, good for the place and good for the economy.”

Dalziell said a real life example can be found in Te Ara Tipuna, a proposed 500-kilometre walking trail along the East Coast from Gisborne to Ōpōtiki, traversing several Māori land blocks on the way.

The trail would link up existing bits of public access and help reconnect the diaspora of Ngāti Porou back to the whenua, she said.

Dalziell said equitable access Aotearoa New Zealand’s great outdoors was what mattered.

“I’m thinking of the young people the rangatahi of Papakura and a place that’s really cherished… There’s a beautiful series of swimming holes up Hays Creek heading into the Hunua. And the only way to get there is up the side of a very windy, rural road that’s got very little shoulder and has a lot of quarry trucks on it because there’s a quarry up in the area as well.

“So that’s what I have in mind when I think about the kind of equitable distribution of outdoor access and what might need to change in the future,” she said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand