Selwyn_Times: March 13, 2024

Selwyn Times Wednesday March 13 2024
6
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Deadline looms for hut residents:
• By Daniel Alvey
FOR GREENPARK Huts
resident Don Brown, his bach
is much more than a building.
It provides him with a vital
connection to Te Waihora Lake
Ellesmere.
Like all residents the huts, Don
has just over three months to
leave. He uses as his hut as a base
for fishing.
In 2020, landowners, Ngāi
Tahu delivered the news to hut
owners that beyond June 30 this
year, their leases would not be
renewed.
The first buildings were
built at Greenpark Huts in the
early 1900s. Ngāi Tahu gained
ownership of the land from the
Crown in 1998 as part of its
Treaty of Waitangi settlement.
Greenpark Huts is one of three
lakeside settlements soon to be
wiped off the map. Upper Selwyn
Huts and Lower Selwyn Huts
are also facing a finite future due
to similar issues with climate
change and wastewater.
Don said he would not be
leaving.
“They’ll have to get the bailiffs
in,” Don said.
If residents refuse to leave,
Ngāi Tahu would have to file
an eviction notice with the
Christchurch District Court. If
successful, the court will appoint
a bailiff who may be supported
by police. It is against the law
for Ngāi Tahu to evict residents
themselves.
Don said Ngāi Tahu knows it
is doing something wrong by its
principles.
“They (Ngāi Tahu) have
discomfort in what they are
doing. They know that it is not in
their tribal philosophy.
“They know that in their
heart that it is not appropriate
behaviour and to hold that up
to other iwi it would become
embarrassing.
“If you applied Māori principles
to the whole community it
does not gel, but when you do
it to a tribal member it is even
more vicious.”
Even with little time left, Don
is still hoping Ngāi Tahu will
WAITING: Greenpark Huts is one of three settlements on
the shores of Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere that will soon be
wiped off the map. Resident Don Brown of Ngāi Tahu
has a long-standing connection with the area.
PHOTOS: DANIEL ALVEY
‘They (Ngāi Tahu) have discomfort in what they are doing.
They know that it is not in their tribal philosophy.’
– Don Brown
change its mind.
“It came as a bit of shock,
and since then there have been
communications backwards and
forwards, but their (Ngāi Tahu’s)
position hasn’t changed, I’m
hoping it will.
“Some of the advice they made
the decision on has become
dated in light of new science,”
Don said.
Despite being Ngāi Tahu, Don
is not getting special treatment
and is facing the same fate as
the other 32 hut owners. All
residents must leave by June 30
and remove all buildings at their
own expense by September 30.
He grew up in Lincoln and
would frequently visit the hut,
which was owned by his father,
since about 1950.
In the early days, he would
come out on horse and cart.
“The road was abysmal,” Don
recalls.
His current hut has been
on the site for about 30 years
after the original building was
condemned by the council due to
its condition.
Don said his whakapapa and
association with the lake goes
back before Ngāi Tahu arrived
in about 1690 to the early iwi
Ngāti Māmoe and before that
Waitaha, about 400-500 years
ago.
“Our family predates the Ngāi
Tahu occupation of this part of
Canterbury,” Don said.
Ngāi Tahu says the reasons for
the eviction include the quality
of drinking water, the impending
risk from climate change
and unconsented wastewater
systems.
Since the iwi’s tribunal settlement,
Don has felt isolated from
the community for being Ngāi
Tahu.
“There is racism and a disconnect.”
He said after Ngāi Tahu took
over the land, he was nominated
to be a spokesperson on behalf
of the community to the iwi, but
no-one seconded him.
“There has been an undercurrent
ever since.”
Don said it is just now dawning
on some there is unlikely to
be a change in position by Ngāi
Tahu.
“As reality bites in and it’s not
just a bad dream, I think now the
inevitability is being taken into
account by the community and
they are definitely not comfortable
with it.”
“Talk about putting in security
fences once the eviction date
takes hold, that’s quite confrontational
and reopened a wound
of two polarised positions.”
Don said Ngāi Tahu could
have handled the communications
with residents better.
“It was badly handled by Ngāi
Tahu. Better processes could
have been implemented.’’
Since Ngāi Tahu took over in
1998, it has always been known
hut owners would have to pay for
the removal of buildings when
the time came.
On the other side of the
settlement is Peter Scarrott who
has been coming to the huts
since his father bought a hut in
1952, and for about 30 years he
has lived in his hut.
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