Mana moana, mana tangata Testimonies on depletion and ...

Interviewee #27 – Nothingness.
.....................
if you drain the wetlands for farming, the wetlands are the core of protection for our <strong>moana</strong>, for our
other awa, if you don’t have that protective thing there, that’s contributing to the death of our spirit as
well you know, our rivers start to get polluted and our <strong>moana</strong> starts to become, because there’s no sieve
between anymore. Or for economic development for who, you know, and for how long? And I suppose
that’s looking at it from a Western perspective, the economic development side of things is, that’s only
one aspect of the mauri of us as a people, as, you know, our connection to the land, to everything. It is
taking away those things that mean so much to us – Interviewee # 29b
.....................
I think one of the other things, too, impacting on our rohe<strong>moana</strong> is the silting. You go up in the airplane
and you see all that silting coming out from the ngutu awa into the <strong>moana</strong> so that would be one of the
big impacts, silting out into the maona and that would probably be a result of harvesting, forestry or
deforestation – Interviewee #29
.....................
Farming, yeah, that is a big impact and estuaries whitebait really, yeah so it’s very small amount and
that’s because a lot of those estuaries right from the awa cattle grazing from the banks destroying all
their habitats – Interviewee #30
27