This was how Riana WiHongi described the decision of Maori in this small community in the Northland region of New Zealand to occupy the site where a prison is under construction.

On June 1 a protest convoy of cars drove slowly through the nearby town of Kaikohe, then parked at the cemetery. The group walked the remainder of the way to the prison site through driving rain, where they were welcomed by elders with speeches and songs.

Already some tents had been erected and protest banners and flags strung across the fence around the construction site. Hot food was served in an old farm shed which had been turned into a makeshift kitchen.

Then the work began of building toilets and other necessary facilities for an occupation, putting down metal grids and wooden pallets to make a path through the mud, and organizing of other details.

Four days later the occupation ended when police moved onto the site and arrested 37 of the protesters after the Minister of Corrections invoked the Trespass Act.

The land the prison is planned to be built on is a geothermal field, the only one in Northland. Of the estimated $NZ100 million cost for construction, half will be spent on stabilizing the site (NZ$1 = US 49 cents). This includes diverting the Ngawha stream and installing 20,000 wick drains to take water run-off. The water runs to nearby mineral hot pools.

Riana WiHongi and Toi Maihi explained that they consider this land sacred because of these waters. Generations have bathed at the Ngawha Springs and drunk the water for their healing properties. In addition, Maori who have fallen in battle in the area over centuries are buried here.

WiHongi said local Maori protested when a geothermal power station was built in 1992 at Ngawha, drawing on the same source of water, and the children of those protesters are today opposing the prison.  
 
More than half of prisoners are Maori
While Maori are 15 percent of the population nationally, more than half of prison inmates are Maori. The prison at Ngawha is one of four new institutions planned for different regions. The Labour-led coalition government presents its prison policies as helping Maori, justifying its choice of sites on the grounds that they will enable inmates to be close to their home areas and families.

WiHongi rubbished this, pointing out that most members of Ngapuhi, the local tribe, live outside of Northland. Most live in Auckland, where 25 percent of Maori nationally live.

The government considered a number of places before choosing Ngawha, which did not rank highly in the initial assessments of suitable sites for a prison. "Why put a prison on a geothermal field?" asked WiHongi. "It is only logical in the sense of the continued oppression of Maori.

"My personal opinion is that they picked on a poor community over other more affluent sites where people had money to fight [a prison proposal] and they assumed we wouldn’t," she said. "I think it’s really just outright injustice." Added Toi Maihi, "One would think it was racist and when you look at it, it actually is."

WiHongi said that another group of Maori, Ngati Hine, had offered to have the prison, but would only lease the land to the government, not sell it, and had proposed that Maori plan and run the rehabilitation programs. The government rejected this and instead pressured a farmer to sell them his land at Ngawha.

Cyril Chapman explained that the decision to build a prison in Northland was based on government forecasts of a further increase in the number of Maori prisoners. "They’re paving a pathway for our future--incarcerate our children," said Chapman. He contrasted the $100 million to be spent on the prison to the government spending only $1 million per year over three years to improve Maori education, and $1 million to build a polytechnic college at Kerikeri in Northland.

Chapman said the government’s priorities were shown in the announcement a few days earlier that Kaitaia Hospital in Northland had suspended weekend and after-hours surgery because of lack of skilled staff. This is part of a more generalized crisis in providing health services, particularly in rural areas.  
 
Conditions Maori face
Nearly 30 percent of Northland’s population is Maori. It is known as one of the poorest regions in the country. This has been exemplified by the number of people burnt to death in house fires in recent years, caused by working people in substandard housing using candles instead of electricity. Northland has the highest official unemployment rate in New Zealand, with one in 10 out of a job, "and all they can give us is a jail," commented Riana WiHongi.

The region is also a tourist and holiday destination, long known for its mansions, golf courses, and boating facilities for the wealthy.

Chapman explained some of the history of his family’s forced dispossession from their land over the last century. "Here we are over 100 years later, another insult," he said of the prison.

The decision to occupy comes after years of efforts to stop the prison. These include meetings with government representatives, taking legal cases to different courts, and protest rallies and marches. For example, Riana WiHongi explained they proposed to the minister of corrections, Matthew Robson, that debates around the region be organized with three speakers for the prison and three against. Instead, Robson organized meetings with speakers for the prison proposal only, and despite facing opposition at these meetings, went ahead with his decision to build the prison at Ngawha.

Protesters are angry that construction was begun before their appeal against the Environment Court ruling allowing the prison to proceed has been heard. As well, no decision has been made on their application for a stay of execution to stop work until the appeal is heard.

Felicity Coggan is a sewing machine operator and Janet Roth is a meat worker. Both belong to the National Distribution Union.  
 
 
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