Following the riot outside Parliament yesterday, local Iwi today assessed the damage to their ancestral lands and are in full planning mode to determine what steps they need to take to not only ensure physical healing but spiritual as well
Taranaki Whānui ki Te Ūpoko o Te Ika chair Ihākara Puketapu Dentice was saddened, seeing the aftermath.
“Korekau he kupu. I haere mai au ki konei, he āhua paru. He mamae mo te whenua nei”
“There are no words, I've come here and it's dirty. I'm hurting for the land.”
Kaiota is the ancestral name of this land that Parliament sits on and yesterday it was consumed by fire. While the clean up continues, a spiritual cleanup by mana whenua is being planned.
“There needs to be a restoring of the mana and mauri in this whenua,” he said.
Just this week Taranaki Whānui laid Te Kahu o Te Raukura to offer spiritual protection to the area surrounding the Wellington CBD. This followed reports of abuse of kaumatua, kuia and locals alike. The spiritual custom also offered solace to the home people. This protest was the worst local iwi have witnessed.
“We've had a whole number of protests happen on our whenua but never have we felt so disrespected as we have felt over these past 23 days.”
Although protestors didn't obey the call of local mana whenua to leave, Puketapu Dentice says it's now time for whānau to heal.
“We need to come together to wananga to talk about how we facilitate that healing. From my perspective, the protestors who have come here, they're going to have to go home to their families and start their healing process. We'll start our healing process at Pipitea Marae as trustees as whanau at Pipitea Marae” he said.