About Honour the Maunga
Honour the Maunga is a grassroots community organisation who has maintained a daily presence on Ōwairaka / Mt Albert since 11 November 2019, to prevent Tupuna Maunga Authority felling 345 healthy, mature exotic trees.
We are a group of extraordinary, every day people from all walks of life. Before this, most of us had never done anything more radical than signing a petition or walking in a protest march! However, we feel so strongly about the Authority’s plans to fell these beautiful trees that we have united to maintain a constant vigil to keep the trees safe.
Our history
It all started when…
In late October 2019, long-standing Mt Albert resident Anna Radford received a letter advising that Tupuna Maunga Authority would be felling all 345 exotic trees from Ōwairaka / Mt Albert in the five weeks beginning 11 November. Shocked, she tried to contact the Authority (who she had never heard of before) to find out why they wanted to undertake such environmentally destructive action that made no sense.
Like so many others, Anna got given the run-around and found that nobody from the Authority was prepared to engage with her. By this stage it was early November and less than a week before the tree-felling was due to commence.
Honour the Maunga’s spokesperson, Anna Radford in the foreground on the day Honour the Maunga was formed. The youngest person here was just three days old; the oldest in his mid-eighties. Most of these people are still involved in the organisation to this very day.
Tired of being fobbed off, and determined to get answers, she contacted the NZ Herald. She was subsequently interviewed. The journalist asked if Anna was prepared to be photographed for the story.
By this stage, she had become aware of a lot of discussion about the issue on the local community Facebook page so she posted an invitation for concerned people to join her for the photo. Even though it was at very short notice on a week day, around two dozen people turned up. After the photograph was taken, they discussed the situation and wondered what to do about it. Someone suggested forming a protest group; another person came up with the name. A volunteer offered to create a Facebook page; another set up a Givealittle and petition. Anna said she would take care of the media side of things. And voila! Honour the Maunga was born.
Another community meeting was held on the maunga the day before felling was due to begin. By this time various news media had covered the story so around 80-100 people turned up. At this meeting the decision was made to start occupying the maunga early the next morning and, from that point onward, we have managed to hold the chainsaws at bay!
Our mission
Our mission is to honour the maunga Ōwairaka / Mt Albert and all the lifeforms she supports by stopping the needless felling of 345 healthy, mature trees.
Our values
When engaging with each other, or those outside our organisation, we will always conduct ourselves with:
Respect: For each other and those we engage with
Integrity: Honestly and openly working together to achieve Honour the Maunga’s mission
Peacefulness: Working peacefully and constructively to achieve our goals
Courage: Bravely and passionately forging new ground – for Ōwairaka / Mt Albert and beyond
Unity: Walking forward together
Meet our leaders
Running Honour the Maunga is a big job! We’re all volunteers, with work and family commitments so the fact we have been able to maintain a presence on Ōwairaka / Mt Albert since 11 November 2019 (Covid lock-down aside) is testament to how passionate people are about this cause.
Meet our Patrons
Sir Harold Marshall, KNZM
Sir Harold Marshall is a fourth-generation Mt Albert resident, Former Chair of the Mt Albert Residents’ Association and founding Honour the Maunga member.
Pouroto Ngaropō, MNZM, JP
As Ngāti Awa ki Te Awa o Te Atua, Pouroto Ngaropō has deep ancestral, spiritual and cultural connection to Ōwairaka through his ancestress Wairaka, from whom the maunga is named.
Meet our Co-ordinating Committee
Running and co-ordinating such a complex operation is too much for one person to do on their own, so we have a committee to help keep things running smoothly. Our committee members are as follows:
Anna Radford
Leader, strategist and spokesperson
David Marshall
Finances, policy, strategy
Wendy Gray
Policy, tree advocacy
Yo Heta-Lensen
(Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine ā Hine-ā-Māru)
Whanaungatanga (relationships)
Samar Ciprian
Social media
Linda Hill
Administrative support
Our personal reasons for wanting to save the maunga trees
We have thousands of supporters, all of whom have their own personal reasons for wanting to save the maunga trees from destruction. Here are some of them:
Anna: I feel a deep spiritual connection to nature, including this beautiful maunga and the trees, birds and all the lifeforms it supports. It would break my heart to see them destroyed.
Pouroto: As the children of Ranginui and Papatūanuku, all trees provide us with the air that we breathe and connect us all to a shared existence in the time dimensions of the past, present and future.
Harold: A living tree is a signpost for a habitable planet.
Bev: I care about trees and all the life forms they support. I think it is lunacy to cut down mature healthy trees at any time, especially in a climate emergency.
Anne: There can be no justification in a climate emergency for the felling of a single precious healthy, mature tree from the Auckland urban ecosystem, let alone 2,000 of them!
Anthony: Spending a small fortune of public money to cut down mature trees in the midst of both environmental and financial crises is just crazy. I'm standing up for the trees that produce the oxygen our planet and population need to survive.
Ben: Nature enables me, so therefore I am compelled to I protect, defend and sustain it.
Caleb: I have a deep love and spiritual connection to all living things in the environment but especially trees, and so I cannot stand by while trees are destroyed. I believe that it is my duty to protect trees wherever and whenever they need protecting.
David: For me it’s about the beauty of the mountain. This is a special place for all people, teeming with life, all coexisting in a model of unity and diversity for us all.
Samar and Steve: At this time of shifting climate, nothing is more important than preserving every living space we have. This is our sacred duty, not optional and not something that can be done later. There is no later.
Fiona: In a world abuzz with busyness, it is steadying to be around mature trees. Why on earth would we spend millions of dollars destroying them?
Oliver: If the trees live, I live..so that's why I help my Dad protect them.
Yo: I believe that all our rakau (trees) and everything on this earth has a whakapapa, and I will fiercely defend the rights of our maunga to remain intact for all the manu (birds), ngarara (insects) and all the life that it sustains.
Shirley: From a Māori perspective, my father taught us that the environment is very, very important. The trees are part of the environment and we have to look after them; they are home for our kaitiaki (guardians) - our birds.
Wendy: I recognise that I am in service to Mother Earth. Humanity is at a crossroads and we either wake up or we lose everything. I am part of the process of educating, raising awareness and trying to do my best to stand in integrity with Mother Nature.
Grant: In this day and age the planet needs every tree we can get. I support planting more native trees but let’s leave the exotics to live out their life span.
Tom: “What would the world be, once bereft of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet. Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet!”
(GM Hopkins)
Sarah: My Grandparents in 1917 had the Owairaka quarry stopped and, in its place, planted natives and exotics to live in harmony. May this beautiful cohabitation continue and may millions of tax payers’ dollars be saved in the process.
Kay: Trees nurture us. I want to give the trees a voice.
Patrick: Mature trees provide incalculable ecological services. New saplings cannot replace generations of growth destroyed. Trees are vulnerable to development pressures. Old trees should rarely be removed by anyone, and only after robust process as a last resort. A long term succession strategy for Ōwairaka is positively the right outcome.
Laurie: I was offended by descriptions of the protesters as ‘woke entitled Pakeha’ and was initially intrigued to explore the ideology behind the "ethnic cleansing" of exotic trees. Now I just think it urgent to protect trees.
Mereana: As Te Tāwera hapū, Ngāti Awa Ki te Awa o te Atua there is an obligation and responsibility to support and protect the ancestral sites where our ancestors came and walked.
Fran: Trees are integral to our very existence; protecting our green spaces and the ecosystems that they support is a must. The needless destruction of hundreds of healthy, beautiful trees upon Ōwairaka, ensuing loss of birdlife and other immeasurable value of this special urban oasis is utterly unjustifiable.
What happens at Ōwairaka will affect the fate of around 2500 trees on Auckland’s maunga. Please help us save these trees!
Your donation will help us to continue saving trees and spreading the word spreading the word.
Any unused proceeds will be donated to an appropriate environmental charity.
You can help by joining our ongoing tree-saving presence at the maunga. All it takes is two hours per week. Please be aware that in volunteering to help, you agree to abide by our Code of Conduct.
Subscribe to our newsletter and keep up-to-date with our tree-saving progress.
Signing our tree-saving petition is a quick and easy way to show your support for saving Ōwairaka’s trees. Please do not make donations on the Change petition website because those funds go to Change.org to promote the petition. It is more helpful to donate to us via our Givealittle page.
Sign up to get a text alert if the chainaws come out
We will need as many tree defenders as we can get if the Authority moves to fell the trees. Sign up here to get a maunga tree felling text alert.