"Matakite walkovers" - a new assessment tool for councils?

The proposed Hastings District Plan (November, 2013) includes references to 'matakite walkover', the use of Maori clairvoyant powers as a means of determining an area's cultural or spiritual significance. Vicki Hyde, on behalf of the NZ Skeptics, made the following submission on the proposed plan.

Chapter 16.1, Section 16.1.1 needs to be amended to remove the two references to matakite walkovers, for the following reasons.

The New Zealand Skeptics believes that it is vital that regard for wahi tapu, regulation of development on any kind of land, and protection of natural resources must be best practice and evidence-based to ensure that appropriate, sustainable plans, methods and actions can be identified and supported. The adoption of Section 16.1.1 as currently written does not support that because of the inclusion of matakite walkovers as a recognised assessment practice to be undertaken.

Matakite has two distinctly different usages in Te Reo:

(1) referring to traditional Maori divinatory practices, involving clairvoyant or psychic powers General marketing for matakite consultation-based services makes it clear that the main usage in this regard relates to a belief in the ability to use psychic links to the spirit world to gain information about the past, and visions of the future. Thus matakite-based commercial services are primarily associated with terms such as clairvoyant, psychic, palm reading, tarot, intuition, spirit, seers, foretellers, soothsayers, shaman, and other offerings associated with the paranormal industry. These are not practices which should be referenced in such a document as a District Plan, in the same way that a best-practice approach would require that you should not advocate for the discredited paranormal practice of water dowsing as part of any water management scheme.

(2) a more modern usage as a synonym for visionary thinking or looking towards the future when undertaking planning processes.

This latter usage has been adopted by numerous organisations as part of their commitment to bicultural development. Eg Otago Polytechnic's strategic plan: "Our Vision Ou matou Matakite"; Waikato District Health Board: "Vision (Te Matakite(".

Please note that the NZ Skeptics strongly support the use of the term matakite in this fashion, particularly with regard to involving local iwi groups in developing a strategic vision and looking to the future of their area to improve outcomes for tangata whenua and others as well as the social and physical environment.

It is clear from the term "matakite walkover" in Section 16.1.4 Methods that the Council is proposing inclusion of the clairvoyant practice as one of the recognised methods that will be implemented (Section 16.1.4 wording, our emphasis) to achieve the Plan's Objectives and Policies; it is included alongside references to widely supported evidential practices such as consultation of historical records, archaeological information evidence, resource consent and Historic Places Trust records, customary use and recognised iwi consultation and kaitiaki processes.

We do not support the advocacy of clairvoyant practices as a legitimate assessment method for such planning, and believe the specific references to it should be removed from Section 16.1.4, hence our opposition to the Kiwirail proposal to adopt this Section as it currently stands.

At the very least, if the Council genuinely intends to mandate use of clairvoyance as part of approved practice, it would be vital for the definition of matakite, as used within the Plan, to be included in the Section Glossary (16.1.8) so that people can be aware of the intended meaning in this context and make their own assessment of the Plan's credibility as a result. We note that much more commonly used terms are currently defined in that section (eg iwi, pa) yet this one, with its relative scarcity of common usage and two distinctly different usages at that, is not. Thus 16.1.8 should include, if this practice is to be mandated, the following definition: matakite walkover: divining land using traditional Maori clairvoyant or psychic powers.

Vicki Hyde (Ngati Maniapoto - Tamainupo, Ngati Te Kanawa) is media spokesperson for the NZ Skeptics.