Authorities apologises after ‘appropriating’ Mā ori slogan

Whakatāne District Council has apologised to iwi since “appropriating” a te reo detto. Photo / LDR

Whakatāne District Council has apologised to iwi after “appropriating” a huge slogan used to fight water bottling consents in the district.

Māori water rights activists said the council’s use of the saying “he taonga te wai” any time you’re encouraging the community to conserve water appears to be “appropriation” and “insulting”.

However , the council shows it was just trying to incorporate some more te reo Māori into its interactions and has since apologised and reached out to those offended to have a korero that’s about its future use of te reo.

The phrase, and translates to water is a treasure, has become widely used by Te Rūnanga e Ngāti Awa when communicating information on its fight against the grant because of consents by the district council & Bay of Plenty Regional Authorities to allow the expansion of good water bottling plant Otakiri Springs.

Chinese-owned company Creswell NZ has been granted consents if you want to expand the plant to create billions of plastic containers on site and to allow various litres of water to be released to China.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa has bitterly fought the its been stretched in the Environment Court and Outstanding Court to protect its right simply because kaitiaki of the water and otrzymane mauri o te wai (lifeforce of the water).

It has lost in both courts.

On Monday, Whakatāne council used the same whakataukī during asking the community to conserve water even as it worked to resolve an electrical fault ın the treatment plant.
Those who have assisted the fight against the expansion felt this had been frustrating to see the same phrase would once encourage residents to conserve water every time a resource consent granted by the authorities will allow it to be exported internationally.

In response, Māori water rights activist and part He Taonga Te Wai group group, Lanae Cable, crafted each letter for others to send to the council to express their frustration at the connectivity to the phrase.

This became picked up by prominent Māori social-media influencers such as Dunedin-based Jessica Carr, known online as Māori Mermaid, and spread online through his / her followers.
As of yesterday working day, the council had received sixty two responses via its website knowledge use of he taonga te wai whakatauki, most of which were duplicates having to do with Cable’s original letter.

Acting chief executive David Bewley said the connection between the use of the coupure for the council’s water conservation messages and its use in opposing the upgrade of the water bottling plant available on Otakiri was not recognised until the local authority or council received feedback on its communicate Facebook post.

“The council did not intend to amount to insensitive towards Ngāti Awa in using the phrase, and we sincerely apologise for any offence that occurred courtesy of – us doing so.

“It was intended as a non-literal translation of the ‘Every Drop Counts’ message and image in regards to the are trying to conserve drinking water in Whakatāne and simply Ōhope at that time, due to an electrical defect at our water treatment deposit. It was in no way intended to be connected to a professional use of the phrase.

“In recent years, council staff make a concerted effort to include lai reo Māori in communications whenever we can. This instance was an example of that do kaupapa and was done with great intentions to reflect a more bilingual approach.

“Given the strength of the feedback received, we need apologised directly to Te Rūnanga tik Ngāti Awa and have reiterated our commitment to continue to work with them, so most of these situations are not repeated in the future.

“We have also calls a representative of the ‘He Taonga té Wai’ community group to initiate a korero about the use of otrzymane reo Māori in council business operations. ”

Cable connection was contacted for comment and did not respond in time for guide.
It is the regional council’s alternative consent that allows for the increased necessitate of water.
The council’s resource consent allows for the negligible expansion of the buildings at Otakiri Springs.