Local artists line up to support the Ihumaatao Reclamation Festival this Saturday

Announcing the fabulous line-up for the Ihumaatao Reclamation Festival at Ihumaatao, near Auckland International Airport on Saturday 2 March 2019.

Kicking off with a pōwhiri at 11:00 am, two stages will feature Rise Era from the Grow Room and Te Henga Collective, followed by Tom Scott, The Ihumaatao Band, DLT, Kaupapa Driven and Upper Hutt Posse.

Carlos Hendrix and Ladi 6 are joining the line-up with Unity Pacific, Che Fu, King Kapisi and NRG.

Him, Raiza Biza and Midnight Poetry band will also be playing along with the Fuzzies, New Telepathics, Kiko, Imagine This, Labretta Suede & The Motel 6, not necessarily in that order.

This event is being held to protest the plan by transnational company, Fletcher Building, to build 480 houses on this scared whenua. This land was unjustly confiscated in 1863 and is part of a rare cultural heritage landscape. In 2012 it was rezoned and Auckland Council later approved it as a special housing area (SHA62).

SOUL (Save Our Unique Landscape) Campaign is fighting to stop the development and protect the land for future generations.

“This land matters because it offers our city and nation unique natural, conservation, archaeological, heritage and cultural values. The whole history of our country can be told here – the good, the bad and the ugly,” says Pania Newton, SOUL spokesperson.

SOUL, including mana whenua, tangata whenua and other supporters, moved onto the land more than two years ago, establishing Kaitiaki Village as an act of political protest and reclamation.

“SOUL is protesting Fletcher’s plans to build an inappropriate, high-cost development on land that the former Manukau Council promised would become part of the adjacent Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve,” says Brendan Corbett of SOUL. “Fletcher now has permission from Heritage NZ, the body that is supposed to protect our country’s heritage, to destroy archaeological sites on the land.”

SOUL went to the United Nations three times over two years and the high-level UN Committee for Elimination of Racial Discrimination wrote to the New Zealand Government recommending that it ensure proper consultation with all affected Maori.

“The Government has failed to respond,” Newton adds. “We need people on the land to show Government and Auckland Council that this place matters.”

Fletcher paid around $20 million for the 33 hectares in 2016 and, according to a recent NZ Herald article, it is now valued at more than $36 million and Fletcher is open to offers.

“Unjust commercial profiteering will add to the intergenerational harm caused by the original confiscation,” says Corbett.

SOUL’s nation-wide petition asks Government and Auckland Council to intervene, by either buying the land or mandating a process that can lead to an outcome everyone can live with. SOUL will present the petition to Government on the steps of Parliament in Wellington on 12 March at 1pm.

SOUL welcomes visitors to the Kaitiaki Village and the planned music festival is a free, family-friendly event. If possible, those attending the festival are encouraged to offer a koha (whatever you can pay) to support the Campaign.

Please give through the https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/protectihumatao-1 and sign the SOUL petition at: https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/toitu-te-whenua-protectihumaatao.

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