In 1963, Nanny Ata engaged in the Maori Land Court processes in order for the siblings to succeed to and divide the lands in accordance with their agreement. However the partitioning of these lands was not successful, as the Crown was proposing to amalgamate lands at Pipiwai for the Te Horo development scheme, which ultimately subsumed her application and their lands were included in the Te Horo development scheme against their wishes.

 

The proposal for the Te Horo development scheme was initiated by the Maori Affairs in the early 1960s. At this time Maori Affairs was pursuing a Crown policy at Pipiwai of amalgamating “uneconomic” Maori land and settling new farmers on the land in order to bring the land into production. It is well documented in the Maori Affairs and Maori Land Court records that  Nanny Ata and her siblings Ngarongoa and Moetahi were vehemently opposed to the proposed development scheme. Nanny Ata and her siblings were major land holders and they consistently fought to opposed the amalgamation of their lands as they wanted to remain on their lands and work their own farms as they had done so for many years. Nanny Ata and her siblings attended a court hearing regarding the amalgamation and sought to have their land excluded from the amalgamation however, all of their objections were disregarded and overruled and the Maori Land Court ordered the amalgamation of their lands into the Te Horo development scheme.

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Under the Te Horo development scheme our whanau were promised by the  Maori Affairs that we would be able to resettle on our lands within five years. At that point it was expected by us that the lands would be economic and making money. However, resettlement did not occur within five, ten or even 15 years, and still to this day our whanau and the mokopuna of Ataiti Te Rehu Hoterene await the return of their whenua . 

 

One of the first things that occurred after the amalgamation was the removal of all fences on Nanny Ata's land so that there would be no sense of boundaries, or individual whanau ownership of the land. Maori Affairs padlocked the gates preventing  Nanny Ata from entering onto her own lands. Such was her riri that she would get bolt cutters out to cut the chains. She would make persistant complaints to the police about the Maori Affairs, irrespectively Maori Affairs would ring the police and complain that she was trespassing.

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The intention of the Maori Affairs was to develop the land and bring it into economic production. However, the Maori Affairs actually mismanaged the lands and accrued substantial debts. During Maori Affair’s administration of the land a complicating issue began to arise where shares were either sold or acquired by the Crown. The selling of shares also allowed people from outside the whanau to buy land which they never should have been able to, thereby alienating the rights of the original whanau who lost their shareholding in the block. During this time there were lots of wrong doings that never should have been allowed in terms of the purchasing of land that did not belong to the original shareholders in the block.  Over time, the Crown and other minor shareholders came to be significant owners  in the block.  The effect of this, was that many whanau were pushed out of Pipiwai and became landless and were either forced to leave, or were left with no option but to move out of their homes in Pipiwai to live elsewhere.

 

Throughout the entire period that the land was developed by the Maori Affairs, Nanny Ata remained opposed to the amalgamation and sought to have her lands partitioned from the scheme. She was constantly engaged with lawyers trying to fight the battle to have her whenua returned. She was well known in the  Maori Land Court and the Maori Affairs avoided her at all times due to the constant conflict that was created over the whenua.

 

Nanny Ata, was 60 years old when her whenua  was taken and amalgamated by the Maori Affairs. Her children (Hari, Sam, Dean, Rua, Lavona, Eileen, and Murray) avidly remember that from this day on something changed for their mother that would never see her be the same again. The fight for her lands completely consumed her. She was forever writing letters to the Maori Land Court and Maori Affairs about her lands and appealing and opposing decisions concerning the whenua. She would often catch the bus to Whangarei to go to the Maori Land Court and spend hours searching for information. When attending Court, we can recall how she would come out of the Maori Land Court angry, frustrated and often so disappointed with the outcome. Many times staff at the Maori Affairs and Maori Land Court were unhelpful and denigrating of our mother in her requests for documents and information. Often she was disregarded or “fobbed off” and told they could not find the records she wanted. The fight for her lands completely consumed her: 

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“She was always going to Court. Back then the Court house was on Rathbone Street in town. She used to be there all the time forever fighting. After the amalgamation most of her time was spent in town then. It was an all day trip from Pipiwai for her when she went into town, because she’d have to come back on the 3 o-clock bus. That was if the family wasn’t around to take her. So she’d get the bus early and come and spend the day in Court and represent herself. I don’t recall her having much help if any, she did it all herself. She’d fight with them all the time. She would spend hours  looking through books and asking for things. She was well known to the Court staff. They would never give her the answer she wanted. She would leave mostly frustrated and dissatisfied” (Aunty Lavona – Daughter of Nanny Ata)

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Nanny Ata paid for many applications and lawyers fees out of her own money, a testament to her passion to get her lands back. Because of her constant opposition and being a maori woman she was often ignored and ridiculed and, in spite of her constant efforts she remained unsuccessful. We know now that our mother would never have succeeded as her lands were identified by the Maori Land Court as essential to the success of the development scheme, even prior to the amalgamation being proposed to the community. 

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It was a further blow to our whanau that a piece of land was further alienated to a cousin Winiata Shortland. This house is located across the road from the homestead where Nanny Ata and the family had their milking shed. This was a very complex issue and has caused a huge division for our family as we are closely related to Winiata Shortland. This occurred at a time when the Te Horo Trust had been turned back to the whanau to manage.  Accordingly this partition was approved even when the whanau opposed this partition application. This land was used and owned sole by Nanny Ata prior to the amalgamation and was exactly where her shop, house, paddock and milking shed were located. This event caused an enormous level of stress and grief amongst our whanau that continues even today. Again Nanny Ata wrote in opposition to this partition but her concerns were ignored, causing irreparable damage between us as whanau.

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The real effect of the taking of her lands by Maori Affairs was that her Rangatiratanga, the absolute right to live on and manage her lands, was diminished and taken away. Her rights as an owner were transferred to the Maori Affairs who gained all rights of ownership and control of her lands and, in return, she was given only a shareholding in the new Te Horo block. The shareholding was supposed to reflect the amount of land she owned prior to amalgamation but this can be debated given the transactions of the Maori Affairs. Our mother continually opposed the concept of being a shareholder rather than a land owner. Conceptually it was not something she could conceive. She knew it took away her mana whenua. Shareholdings did not and still do not equate to land ownership. To her, nothing compared to being on her whenua, living and farming her land.

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"In the end we moved our mother  (Nanny Ata) to Moerewa because her health began to deteriorate due to the stress of her losing her lands and the manner in which she was treated by Maori Affairs. We her children were also forced to leave the area because we could not farm the land and we needed jobs to support our mother and our own whanau" (Aunty Lavona - Daughter of Nanny Ata)

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On the 6th of September 1977 Nanny Ata consented to her son, Samuel Armstrong becoming the proxy in respect of her lands and was appointed Power of Attorney. From then on, Sam attended many meetings to represent Nanny Ata's land interests and continued his mother’s efforts to have their lands partitioned out of the Te Horo Development Scheme. On October 6  1985, at 73 years of age, and after 24 years of fighting for our whenua, our mother, grandmother and great mother Ataiti Te Rehu Hoterene passed away and was laid to rest at Ngatairua urupa in Pipiwai. 

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Instead of returning the lands to our family and allowing us to return to our whenua to live, in 1986 after 21 years of management, the Maori Land Court ordered that the Te Orewai Te Horo Trust be established to manage the Te Horo block, handing back the management  and governance to the shareholders respectively the whanau that held shared in this block.