Green Party East Cape candidate Jordan Walker says cycling the length of State Highway 35 has reinforced the need for politicians to listen directly to coastal communities rather than assume they all face the same challenges.
Walker completed the SH35-East Cape Bicycle Hīkoi, a 333km journey from Tūranganui-a-Kiwa to Ōpōtiki, on Sunday alongside Green Party Tairāwhiti co-convenor Markus Szillat. The five-day ride took them through Ūawa, Waipiro Bay, Ruatōria, Te Araroa and Te Kaha, with stops along the way to meet whānau and hear about pressures facing their communities.
Arriving in Ōpōtiki feeling the effects of the journey, Walker said travelling by bicycle offered a unique view of the coast.
“Kei te tino harikoa au, kei te ora au. Just elated, really,” they said.
“It’s a really beautiful part of the motu. I think it’s a really beautiful way to experience the East Coast as well. It’s a really beautiful way to actually slow down and take in everything that happens on the coast.
“I feel like that’s really the lifestyle too of a lot of coasties - and I mean true coasties - they really are just living in the moment and living with their environment. So, yeah, it was really nice to be able to experience that on a small scale.”
The ride was inspired by social media personality Te Aorere Pewhairangi’s 2023 campaign, Waewae The 35, when he walked the cyclone-damaged highway from Gisborne to Wharekahika to draw national attention to the effects of Cyclone Gabrielle.
Walker, who has whakapapa to Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa and Ngāti Porou, said the journey was intended to connect environmental politics with the lived experiences of people along the highway.
“It was really an opportunity, and I think a way of trying to tie in Green values during campaigning and intentionally trying to connect with communities along State Highway 35.”
In Waipiro Bay, Walker and Szillat met Pearl Beattie and David Donnelly, who showed them the effects of climate change on their whenua and Iritekura Marae, which sits close to the sea. They also visited Taharora Marae, where reconstruction work was nearing completion, and heard about the difficulties trustees had faced securing funding following cyclones Hale and Gabrielle and storms in January.
Walker said the kōrero challenged some of the assumptions they had carried with them from Tūranganui-a-Kiwa.
“I think the biggest lesson and learning is that every township is very different. We’re really quick to assume that, especially if we’re looking at the general election and the East Cape, that captures the entire community and the coast - but actually everyone’s so different.
“I think it’s so important for any government, any politician, anyone who’s claiming to want to fight for these communities, that they actually take the time to listen to the locals.”
One example was the effect of forestry debris, or slash, which Walker said was not experienced uniformly along the coast.
“We made the mistake of assuming that slash was impacting communities in the same way, because that’s our perception coming from Te Tai Rāwhiti, coming from Tūranganui-a-Kiwa specifically.
“The forestry industry and the slash have really impacted us in a different way than they have, say, Te Araroa. So that was really informative, to be able to take on those learnings from locals.”
In Waipiro Bay, access rather than the surface of the road itself was among the most pressing concerns raised. Following Cyclone Gabrielle, residents were cut off despite the hospital at nearby Te Puia Springs being only a short distance away.
“They didn’t have the right type of vehicles - they do now - to be able to actually get there. So they were really concerned, when it came to their kaumātua and their tamariki as well, about how they access healthcare.”
Walker said residents accepted that gravel roads were easier for councils to maintain, provided those roads remained usable.
“They said that they were fine with the gravel. They just wanted access.”
The ride also promoted the Green Party’s Te Waonui a Tāne: Thriving Marae and Thriving Communities policy, which proposes establishing a $2.44 billion Te Rangatiratanga Trust owned and governed by hapū and iwi. The proposal includes $400 million over four years for urgent restoration priorities and $2 billion in an intergenerational investment fund intended to provide protected, long-term funding for marae and Māori communities.
Walker said the model could also restore locally led environmental employment following the end of the previous Jobs for Nature programme.
“Another really beautiful part about the Te Waonui a Tāne policy is actually the opportunity to bring Jobs for Nature back.
“Even though we talk about not wanting to cluster all of those communities on the East Coast into one bubble and assume that they all experience the same thing, when it comes to jobs, they all experience that hardship of not being able to find jobs.”
Walker said the trust would be co-designed with iwi and hapū and protected from changes of government.
“We’ll always have jobs for our whānau up the coast outside of roading. Those are valid forms of mahi, as well as forestry, but we’re actually helping to give more opportunities to whānau up the coast.”
The manaakitanga shown by Ngāti Porou and Te Whānau-a-Apanui was evident throughout the journey, Walker said, whether through roadside acknowledgements or people taking the time to share their experiences and correct misunderstandings.
“It’s meant the world, to be honest. You can just really see the deep manaaki of both Ngāti Porou and Te Whānau-a-Apanui - just a couple of beeps of the horn, waving, acknowledging the kōrero, time shared as well, information shared, people taking their time to correct us when we’ve gotten things wrong.
“E mihi ana ki a koutou katoa. We appreciate it. I feel like we put our bodies on the line to try and pull some form of attention to the coastal communities and what they’re facing.
“I don’t think it’s actually finished either. I feel like this has sparked something.”
Nā Awhina Kurei rāua ko Piripi Taylor nō Pūkāea