Tainui Awhiro celebrate return of land

Tu Tangata, Issue 14, 1 October 1983, Page 30

Tainui Awhiro celebrate return of land

by Sonya Haggie

A Government assurance that the Raglan golf course will be returned to its Tainui Awhiro tribal owners by the end of the year means the struggle to get it will soon be just a part of history. The woman who led that struggle is Eva Rickard. Here she talks about the past and the future.

Outside, the wind lashes against Eva Rickard’s hilltop house. It’s a fitting background for the story she is telling a story that began in the 1970 s and ended recently when the return of Raglan golf course to its Maori owners was finally assured by the New Zealand Government. “People have said to me ‘you must be celebrating’, but I’m not. The price we had to pay has been too great for any celebration,” she says with a sadness in her eyes. “I just sat down and had a cry to myself.” Those are gentle words coming from a woman with a reputation of being an ogre. It’s a reputation she admits, but she is surprised at its extent. “There was a photo of me in a Wellington paper during the meeting with Elworthy (minister of lands). My stomach was hanging down to here and I was eyeing them up,” she laughs.

“I thought ‘Gee, am I that much of an ogre?’” “Now I’m going to write a book about how all men are so easily conned,” she laughs. Mrs Rickard, a 57-year-old grandmother, has devoted much of her life to righting what she believes are wrongs committed at the expense of the Maori people. Her fight to have the 25ha Raglan golf course returned to the Tainui Awhirc people began in the late 19705. Even today she doesn’t know why she became involved. “I have often wondered what clicked to get me into it. I had my own house, I was a fat-cat Maori living a real middle class pakeha existance,” she says. She was even a member of the Raglan Golf Club and a regular golfer. She is a very spiritual woman and talks often of myths, tradition, and her ancestors.

“Spiritually, I know why I became involved. I believe now that I was used by powers I had no control over because I did things I couldn’t remember doing, said things I couldn’t remember saying. “I know I have a bigger struggle coming. I have this feeling there’s a bigger thing coming.” She says other land struggles had ended in suicide for some Maori people. “There were times I could have done the same but didn’t. I kept going because I believe the young and their descendants have got to find a place in this land. “I carried on because my future is in my grandchildren and I would hate them to inherit nothing.” From her Raglan house Mrs Rickard has a commanding view of the harbour and the golf course. Over the years she has often dreamed about the land and what its tribal owners could do with it. An August date had been set for the owners to discuss the land’s future. At that meeting Mrs Rickard was to present them with a proposal for its development. She wants to develop it “for the sur-

vival and sustenance of my people” and describes it as building the future on the past.

Tradition and legend will play a major part.

In a report on the proposal she says the primary objective is to provide an environment “where our past can be shared with the present and future generations so that they may recognise the important, relevant heritage that belongs to this land and the indigenous people, birds, animals, and trees in it”.

“This land will be built for the survival and sustenance of the tribe. It will cater for the physical, mental, emotional, social, and cultural needs of members of the tribe and those who wish to share and accept on Maori terms.

“We are not interested in profitmaking but realise such a scheme will attract the curious and the tourist so any financial gain will be a bonus”.

The first step would be to establish a project employment or work skills programme, plant cash crops and trees, and building housing for those that return to the marae.

A marae would be built and food crops and animals would be established, she says.

Then educational and recreational facilities (like courts for basketball and volleyball and a gymnasium), a health clinic (for orphaned children, alcoholics, and drug addicts), and a “survival” school (teaching myths and legends, Maori language, astronomy, botany, horticulture, nature study, physical education, and arts) would be built.

And it’s going to be a “fun place for the kids”.

She wants to provide a leisure area for children and wants the community to be heralded by a huge, lighted depiction of legendary figure Maui fishing up New Zealand.

Modern technology would be used to generate knowledge and respect for Maori history and heritage, she says.

The development would be financed by returns from crop sales, monetary gifts from visitors, sales of souvenirs and books, and donations from tribal members.

At the bottom of the report she says: “These are some thoughts and I know, united, we can do it”. Lands minister Jonathan Elworthy has assured Mrs Rickard the land will be available to the tribe by the end of this year. Work to develop it will begin next year, she says. “You.know, I woke up one day and thought ‘Well, 1983, this is going to be Eva’s year! “And it has been.”

Eva Rickard sat down and cried when the return of the Raglan goh course was assured. Photo Bill McNicol.