{"id":582593,"date":"2026-08-28T03:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T03:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/582593\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T03:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T03:36:25","slug":"were-being-robbed-of-our-whanaunga-sawmill-whanau-seek-justice-te-ao-maori-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/582593\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re being robbed of our whanaunga\u2019: Sawmill wh\u0101nau seek justice \u2013 Te Ao M\u0101ori News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former sawmill workers and their wh\u0101nau gathered in Kawerau at a hui organised by Sawmill Workers Against Poisons co-chair Kereama Akuhata.<\/p>\n

The hui was held to raise awareness and to encourage former workers exposed to PCP to sign Ministry of Health application forms.<\/p>\n

It followed last week\u2019s release of a Te K\u0101hui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission report<\/a> examining the continuing and intergenerational harm reported by workers, wh\u0101nau and communities.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Kawerau mill site. Photo: Te Ao M\u0101ori News Wh\u0101nau call for specialist care<\/p>\n

Eilensia Ransfield\u2019s grandfather, Dickie Ransfield, worked in the sawmills for around 40 years and became an instrumental member of Sawmill Workers Against Poisons when the group emerged in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

He helped identify chemical dumping sites, joined the group\u2019s journey to Parliament and was remembered as a pillar of his community.<\/p>\n

Ransfield believes chemical exposure contributed to health problems suffered by both her grandfather and her father.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can absolutely say that had they not been exposed [to dioxins], they would have been around here \u2014 they would\u2019ve been koro and papa for far longer than they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Eilensia Ransfield said her whakapapa was resilient, but she did not want resilience to define it; she wished her wh\u0101nau\u2019s story could instead be described as happy and easy. Photo: Te Ao M\u0101ori News <\/p>\n

She wants affected workers and their descendants to have access to specialists who understand PCP and dioxin exposure, saying an ACC-funded doctor\u2019s visit was inadequate for wh\u0101nau living with complex harm spanning generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s surreal, it\u2019s like a sick joke,\u201d Eilensia Ransfield said. \u201cThe fact that people have died \u2026 the only thing that they have is an ACC-covered doctor\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re being robbed of our whanaunga. They\u2019re not living as long, and then it\u2019s passed on to myself, and my children also live with that whakapapa. That\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larry Delamere said responsibility for addressing the harm ultimately rested with the Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a government issue. They were the cause. Thank God Joe Harawira said he wouldn\u2019t let it go by. It should be resolved. Let\u2019s get something done,\u201d Delamere said. <\/p>\n

\"\"Matakino Simpson-Gilden attended the Kawerau hui to offer aroha and support to former sawmill workers and their wh\u0101nau. Photo: Te Ao M\u0101ori News <\/p>\n

Matakino Simpson-Gilden grew up opposite the former Whakat\u0101ne Mill, near where The Hub stands today. She remembered playing in chemical puddles and jumping on piles of woodchips as a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe dived through that, not knowing that it was poisonous. The sawmill workers would yell at us \u2014 protecting us but not protecting themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simpson-Gilden said she had first learned about dioxins through her brother, a Vietnam veteran exposed to Agent Orange. She was frustrated that more people in Kawerau had not come forward, saying the effects were already being experienced across generations.<\/p>\n

Decades on, workers still waiting for action<\/p>\n

Alamein Heihei said former sawmill workers had waited decades for action.<\/p>\n

\u201cKei te kimi haere tonu m\u0101tou, kei te kimi haere tonu,\u201d hei t\u0101na.<\/p>\n

\u201cKore r\u0101 m\u0101tou e m\u014dhio e pai ana t\u0113r\u0101 ki a m\u0101tou, n\u014d te mea he wai noa iho. Engari k\u0101ore ng\u0101 t\u0101kuta, ng\u0101 rangatira r\u0101nei, i te aro ki \u014d m\u0101tou mamae i t\u0113nei w\u0101.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Alamein Heihei before a screen showing Joe Harawira with fellow Sawmill Workers Against Poisons members at Parliament in 2005. Photo: Te Ao M\u0101ori News <\/p>\n

Heihei said workers had not realised something was wrong until their skin began darkening and chloracne appeared, both recognised signs of high dioxin exposure. <\/p>\n

Doctors treated them with pills and plasters, and he said at the time, the Green Party was the only political party willing to listen to their concerns at the time.<\/p>\n

Heihei credited Kereama Akuhata with continuing to carry the kaupapa forward for workers who had died and the wh\u0101nau still living with the consequences.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWe do not get proper health support, and we are still waiting for many of the contaminated sites in our area to be cleaned up,” Kereama Akuhata said. Photo: Te Ao M\u0101ori News \/ Te Aniwaniwa Paterson <\/p>\n

Like many of the men who entered the sawmills, Jack Kahika had been a fit and healthy rugby player. <\/p>\n

Years later, a weeping wound between his toes led him to hospital, where his foot was amputated, and he learned he had diabetes.<\/p>\n

Studies have linked PCP exposure to an increased risk of diabetes<\/a>, but Kahika said former workers had never had access to specialists who could assess their workplace exposure alongside the illnesses they now lived with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at it through my grandchildren – is it hereditary? Is it going to spread to them? We don\u2019t know,\u201d Kahika said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Former sawmill worker Jack Kahika shows the prosthetic leg he now uses following an amputation. Photo: Te Ao M\u0101ori News From living lake to industrial dump<\/p>\n

The Tasman Pulp and Paper Company Enabling Act 1954<\/a> gave the company extraordinary powers to establish and operate the Kawerau mill.<\/p>\n

It authorised Tasman to take water from the Tarawera River and discharge its liquid industrial waste back into it. The company could also enter private land and construct the works it needed, with reasonable notice required only \u201cif practicable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Provided its discharges complied with conditions imposed under the Act, Tasman was protected from prosecution under other laws relating to nuisance or water pollution.<\/p>\n

Although his father, Jack Fox, worked at the mill, Tomairangi Fox said his parents were among a small number of wh\u0101nau who resisted the company\u2019s attempts to cross their land to reach Rotoitipaku.<\/p>\n

His father was dismissed from the mill after blocking that access.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tomairangi Fox took Te Ao M\u0101ori News to Te Wai\u016b o T\u016bwharetoa, an area his father succeeded in protecting. Photo: Te Ao M\u0101ori News <\/p>\n

He remembered visiting Rotoitipaku as a child, when the lake was similarly beautiful and ng\u0101wh\u0101 still bubbled from the whenua.<\/p>\n

Protecting Te Wai\u016b o T\u016bwharetoa became part of his father\u2019s legacy. For Fox, it also preserved an image of what Rotoitipaku had looked like before the contamination.<\/p>\n

From 1971, industrial waste that had previously been discharged into the Tarawera River was piped into Rotoitipaku.<\/p>\n

Over the following decades, more than half a million cubic metres of waste transformed the lake into a sludge pond.<\/p>\n

The lease over the lake and surrounding M\u0101ori reservation land ended in 2013. Fox said the mill subsequently withdrew, leaving the trustees with the waste and the risk it continued to pose to the nearby river.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce upon a time, there was a lake there. Now there\u2019s no lake, it\u2019s just sludge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox said bore samples taken around the former lake had detected traces of PCP, indicating the chemical remained within the area. He said proposals to spray the site and plant trees did not amount to proper remediation.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rotoitipaku, once a lake where wh\u0101nau gathered kai and swam, is now filled with more than half a million cubic metres of industrial waste from the former Tasman mill. Photo: Te Ao M\u0101ori News <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they want to do is just spray it, put trees in and walk away – put a sticking plaster on it,\u201d Fox stressed.<\/p>\n

The trustees are seeking an environmental bond to protect them from future clean-up costs if the containment structures fail. Fox said they were also preparing a Waitangi Tribunal claim with lawyers Chris Finlayson and Anna Kirk after years of inaction from the Crown.<\/p>\n

Government response on remediation<\/p>\n

Environment Minister Nicola Grigg said responsibility for regulating and monitoring contaminated land primarily sat with district and regional councils.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government supports local government to deal with the legacy of land contaminated by past practices, and directs funds each year to sites considered regional priorities,\u201d Grigg said.<\/p>\n

She said councils could apply for support from the Contaminated Sites and Vulnerable Landfills Fund, which had up to $20 million available nationally each year and could cover between 50 and 75 per cent of eligible investigation or remediation costs.<\/p>\n

On the involvement of mana whenua, Grigg said councils were \u201cstrongly encouraged to consult and work with mana whenua and other affected parties throughout investigation or remediation processes\u201d.<\/p>\n

A warning for future developments<\/p>\n

Fox said what happened at Rotoitipaku should warn communities considering major developments to look beyond what was being promised and consider what could be permanently lost.<\/p>\n

Although the current Fast-track Approvals Act contains different safeguards from the 1954 law, Fox said Kawerau showed why communities needed to remain vigilant when the Crown sought to accelerate development.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cYou\u2019ve got to watch what the Crown is doing now. They\u2019re trying to overrule the Treaty,\u201d Tomairangi Fox said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf they do that, protest. Get your wh\u0101nau together, get support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop said the Tasman mill was developed under a different legal and environmental framework from the current fast-track regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important not to conflate historic projects with the current fast-track regime on the grounds that both involved efforts to accelerate development,\u201d Bishop said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFast-track changes the pathway and timeframe for obtaining approvals. It does not mean environmental, contamination or heritage effects can be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Shane Jones (Photo: Te Ao M\u0101ori News) <\/p>\n

Regional Development Minister Shane Jones pointed to the employment and export earnings generated by Kawerau\u2019s industries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe modern environmental guardrails are far more sophisticated than they were 70 years ago. We have learned the lessons of the past,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must look to the future regarding the balance between development, environment and community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither minister addressed the unresolved question of who should be held responsible for the contamination left at Rotoitipaku.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody\u2019s got to be accountable. It\u2019s not us, the trustees. This is what the Crown created,\u201d Tomairangi Fox said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former sawmill workers and their wh\u0101nau gathered in Kawerau at a hui organised by Sawmill Workers Against Poisons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[273,134,6148,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-582593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-environment","tag-health","tag-justice","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}