"The culture of the land": informal access arrangements between tangata whenua and landholders

Abstract

Informal access understandings with landholders appear to be one of the main pathways by which tangata whenua can maintain living relationships with those parts of their landscapes in private ownership. Yet that practice appears to be eroding and policy and legislation are largely silent on the matter of access. Through case studies involving landholders and tangata whenua in the Bridge Pa and Runanga communities in the Heretaunga. Hawke's Bay, this research seeks to identify what makes such understandings work, and what issues might need to be addressed in promoting their wider uptake in rural areas. In planning the way forward, however, access may provide too narrow a base, resting as it does on the dynamics between permission-seekers and granters. Instead, developing a culture of partnership between tangata whenua and landholders with a common goal of protecting the biological and heritage of the land may provide a more constructive future direction. In addition to informal undertakings, legally binding instruments should be developed to provide certainty of access for tangata whenua. The options outlined in this research form just one path to bringing about a new 'culture of the land' in which recognising mana whenua on private land is considered the norm.