Open letter to the Fast Track Panel for the proposed Rotowaro Mine Continuation Project 

Ko Ranginui e tū iho nei, ko Papatūānuku e takoto nei. 

I tokona ko Rangi ki runga ko Papa ki raro.

Ka puta ki te whaiao ki te ao mārama

Ranginui stands above, Papatūānuku lies below

They were separated with Rangi above and Papa below

And from this separation the world of light emerged

Tēnā koutou,

We are calling on you to reject Application FTA314 - Rotowaro Mine Continuation Project. BT Mining Ltd should be made to withdraw its application, work within its existing license, and support iwi, hapū, whānau, and community towards a just transition away from coal and extractive industry.

This letter lays out, in brief, only some of the rich discussion we have been hearing from the community, and touches on points that require further detail to be well represented. This is in addition to other critiques we must include, such as those raised by the 20,000 people that peacefully marched in protest against the Fast-Track Bill, or the close to 24,300 of us that wrote to the Government during the submission process. Given the responsibility put onto the panel, it is our hope that you ensure your decision is made with information that is complete and avoids a narrow range of interests or justifications. As well as listening to our call to reject the application, we ask that community groups, who write asking to attend the panel with their meaningful contributions, are respected and invited to speak. 

We will begin as all things do, with Ranginui and Papatūānuku. We know, as their descendants, that we are connected and related to all that exists, and we know that from this connection comes a responsibility to protect our rivers, our knowledge, our soil, and our ways of being. The issue we are writing about today is coal and the desire of Bathurst Resources, in joint venture with Talley’s, to extract more coal from land already deeply scarred from decades of exploitation. 

Coal mining disturbs the mauri (essential vitality and lifeforce) that binds together all living things by destabilising the balance of carbon, the foundation of all life, between Ranginui and Papatūānuku. In order to explain the philosophy of whakapapa, we would like to highlight the word itself and its simple definition of ‘to place in layers or to lay one on top of another’. To us, coal is a phenomenal embodiment of whakapapa, created through the ‘layering of’ (whaka) ‘organic material’ (papa) over millions of years. All matter has whakapapa, in that everything holds a relationship to everything else, extending across time to include the past, present, and future. Picking up a piece of coal in your hand is not simply holding the material itself, but also the millions of years it has existed in order to form itself. The whakapapa of the coal that lies beneath the whenua (land) at Rotowaro should be treated with respect and allowed to exist uninterrupted in its current form. This discussion of whakapapa has been shared with us by Māori members of Ngā Haumi, as shared with them by their whānau, land, and ancestors.

We raise this to highlight how the Fast-Track Act, and this application at Rotowaro Mine, is in direct contradiction with the ways of acting that are guided by whakapapa. We see rivers, forests, animal life, and minerals as autonomous revered elders deserving of respect and coexistence, currently at threat from ecological crises: the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, pollution, and their intersecting impacts. Approving this application on the basis of “significant regional or national benefits” would be to subscribe to an exclusionary view of what benefit means and maintains the assumption that nature can be treated as a commodified resource for humans to use for our own ends. In this assumption there is no respect for biological limits, regeneration, or human dependency on a healthy ecosystem to survive. 

Ka ora tonu ai te whenua, ka ora tonu ai te tangata. 

If the land is well, the people are well. 

Kua mate te whenua, kua mate te tangata. 

If the land is dying, then surely so must I be. 

Where extractive activities occur, most of the profits are seen by the company and the Government while the consequences of poor health and environmental degradation are burdened by the broader community. We can make good decisions about how we live that will sustain the wellbeing of present and future generations and value the diverse ecology we are connected to. This application jeopardises that opportunity. 

BT mining’s expansion project at Rotowaro is expected to extract up to a forecasted 6.4million tonnes of coal. Coal is the world’s most polluting fossil fuel and single biggest contributor to climate change. The past ten years have been the hottest in recorded history, and we are seeing weather extremes unlike anything seen before across the globe. The injustice at the heart of the climate issue is that those who pollute, or enable the further degradation of ecosystems, leave future generations with the greatest consequences. This, again, is the antithesis of whakapapa and the intergenerational obligations we hold as those alive today. The decision by the Government and harming industries to respond to ecological crises with the lowest priority, is desecrating the sacred link of passing down the taonga that have been gifted to us by stealing the wellbeing of whenua and wai (water) that belong to those yet to come. The New Zealand Government, in accelerating coal production at a time when global leaders, scientific experts, and environmental defenders, are demanding for it to stop, are artificially keeping alive a dying industry, endangering both our descendants and planetary life. For the protection of our wellbeing and whakapapa, there is no future for coal, and no room to expand or perpetuate fossil fuel production and use. Our only choice is to move towards a just transition, led by tikanga, mana whenua, and the affected community. It is essential to move away from fossil fuels in a way that ensures people thrive, where workers are respected, supported and protected from last-minute job losses. 

We are calling on you to use your position to do the right thing and reject Application FTA314 - Rotowaro Mine Continuation Project. 

Manaaki whenua, manaaki tangata

Haere whakamua

Care for the land, care for the people

Go forward