Talking with iwi

You must assess the effects of your proposal

If your proposal is in a certain location or impacts a resource of cultural significance to iwi, then under the Resource Management Act you must assess the adverse cultural effects on the values and interests of tangata whenua.  

As part of your application you're expected to identify:

• adverse effects from your proposal on iwi, their customs and traditions, and their relationship with their ancestral land, water, wāhi tapu and other taonga, and
• how you might manage these effects appropriately. 

It's not always clear when your proposal may have an adverse cultural effect. For instance, while some cultural heritage sites and precincts are known and recorded, there is an extensive history of iwi occupation and use of the land and water across the District. The historical and cultural associations endure and overlap.

Only individual iwi can talk to their own historical and cultural associations with the land or resource in question. This also provides them with the opportunity to exercise their kaitiakitanga over the land or resource.

Our duty planners can help you if there's uncertainty

To figure out the 'horses for courses' approach to whether and what iwi information is needed in the circumstances, our duty planners can help you, both before and after you speak to iwi. 

Our duty planners can provide initial guidance on how likely they think that clarification or information is needed by talking to iwi. For instance - sometimes they may recommend that you talk to iwi first to confirm what the relative cultural significance of the land or resource to the iwi is.

Avoiding delays or frustration

If there's the potential for significant adverse cultural effects from your proposal, talking to the iwi early can avoid delays in processing, or the need to redesign your proposal later.

The potential depends on:

• the specifics of your proposal,
• the nature of the cultural and historical values of iwi associated with the land or resource, and 
• the probability that your proposal will affect identified iwi values, and to what extent.

Talking to iwi helps in answering these.

Consultation is not mandatory, but is best practice.

Talking to iwi though can be the only way to assess the cultural effects of your proposal.

• In the absence of talking to the iwi and understanding the degree of effects and concerns, our consent planners may ask for further assessment of cultural effects, or might recommend that the application is limited notified to iwi. By talking to iwi before you lodge your application, you can avoid these potential delays.
• If it's likely that your proposal may have significant cultural effects, then you will need a full cultural impact assessment with your application which may need lead in time to prepare and consider it's recommendations.
• If your proposal does have the potential to impact significant cultural values, then the conversation with iwi can help identify appropriate ways to manage this, as needed.
• By getting that assessment before you finalise and / or lodge your application, just like any specialist assessment, you can decide how you choose to incorporate any recommendations from the cultural impact assessment in your overall project design. 
• Even if your project involves earthworks that's permitted, if you find any archaeological site or cultural artefact, then you will face the cost and delay of stopping works. You must do this to comply with the TRMP permitted activity standards, the Heritage New Zealand Taonga Pouhere Act 2014 (and the Protected Objects Act 1975). Talking with iwi in advance can help in identifying this risk and reducing these delays and costs if and when you do make an accidental discovery. It may help you get an authorisation from Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga in advance and design your work programme so you can stage your works around any discovery.

Consultation is not a veto, but rather a means of finding out information on the adverse effects and how to appropriately manage these.

The first step is to look at available public information and the specifics of your proposal.

Check public records

See if you're proposal site includes, is adjacent or close to any recorded or acknowledged sites or resources of cultural significance:

• Tasman Resource Management Plan - for instance there are rules relating to identified cultural heritage precincts, or known cultural heritage sites.
• Statutory acknowledgement areas - such as the coastal marine area or or lakes, rivers, streams and their tributaries. 

Link to more details on the Te Tai Ihu Statutory Acknowledgements

• Also check the NZ Archaeological Association site recording scheme directly by their website or through our duty planner service.

Link to the NZ Arch site

What does your proposal involve?

It's also very likely you'll need to talk to iwi if your proposal:

• may have an impact on the freshwater resource,
• impacts the bed of a stream, river or lake,
• is located below mean high water springs, or
• involves discharge of contaminants directly to water bodies or the coast. 

Consider how likely it is that your proposal may affect iwi cultural values.

The adverse effects relate to the iwi's relationship, culture and traditions with their wāhi tapu, ancestral lands, water, and any other taonga. If it's likely there's going to be a potential impact on the land or resource as a result of your proposal, then talk to iwi to find out their views.

You should also look at any relevant iwi planning documents to understand the iwi's stated associations and values with their land and resources.

Link to the iwi management plans 

Land disturbance

Even if your land disturbance activity is permitted under the TRMP, to comply with the permitted activity rules and the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014 you must stop work immediately if you do find an archaeological site, including cultural artefacts. You must follow an accidental discovery protocol, unless you have already got an authorisation from Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

This acknowledges that the public records are incomplete and there may be accidental discoveries that are protected under law. Some iwi hold culturally sensitive 'silent records' - so their involvement can help reduce or manage costs and delays from accidental discoveries during your project.

If it's likely that you may find such a site, we may ask you as part of your resource consent application to clarify how you'll go in and do your works 'with eyes open' to that possibility, so you can comply with these legal requirements. We look at things including the location of the site, the history of previous land modification and development, and known cultural and archaeological records for the area to determine how likely it is in the circumstances of your proposal.

Our duty planners are here to help

We strongly recommend that you talk to our duty planners if you're uncertain about:

• when to talk to iwi,
• what to expect, and
• what to do with any comments or feedback you may get from iwi.

You should provide the amount of detail that's fit for purpose in the circumstances. This is relative to the scale, significance and likelihood of any adverse effect.

The level of information needed will depend on:

• the specific way your proposal may impact identified cultural values associated with a particular resource or site.
• the relative cultural significance of the land or resource (the receiving environment),
• how and by how much the proposed activity will impact the identified cultural values, and
• how and by how much any proposed conditions can manage those identified adverse effects. 

How our duty planners can help

Our consent planners' role is to assess whether you have given us enough information with your consent application to assess the effects. 

We recommend you get an estimate from iwi of what they think is  required in the circumstances and why. They will also let you know the estimated costs for their professional services. You can then either:

• talk to our duty planners once you have spoken with iwi, to ground truth whether the level of detail matches our expectations, or
•  go ahead on the basis of advice received by iwi.

Note that the cost is between the applicant and iwi - but if more or less assessment in our view may be needed, this may impact their estimated time / cost basis.

If there is the potential for adverse cultural effects, then the level of assessment that our planners will be looking for is based on answering the following about your proposal:

• what is the relative cultural significance of the land or resource to the relevant iwi?
• how much does your proposal adversely affect their relationship with that land or resource?  
• taking into account the degree of adverse effects, can appropriate conditions of resource consent manage those identified adverse effects? 

The level of detail is proportionate to the likelihood, scale and significance of the effects. 

What happens with the information from iwi?

You're expected to include the information with your application, and also comment on how you've taken any assessment of cultural effects into account in your proposal. It's your choice to adopt any cultural requirements identified by iwi as conditions as part of your application.

Beyond those offered or agreed by you, our consent planners will only recommend conditions if they're directly linked to an identified adverse cultural effect or a rule in the Tasman Resource Management Plan.