Heritage and culture

Issue

Inappropriate use, development and subdivision of land can lead to the loss or degradation of historic cultural and heritage values that contribute to a regional sense of identity.

Causes

Historic cultural and heritage items (such as monuments, buildings, or artifacts) and places are identified in district plans. Lists included in district plans are sourced from a variety of places including the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Heritage list, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and Papatipu Rūnanga information, and community submissions. Not all items and places are identified, and historic cultural and heritage landscapes are frequently missing from district plans. Items, places, and landscapes that are not identified and protected in district plans are vulnerable to the effects of inappropriate use, development and subdivision of land. This can cause irreversible loss of historic values. Natural disasters, like the Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes, can also lead to the damage and loss of historic items and places (such as urupā and wāhi tapu), and sea level rise and coastal erosion resulting from climate change threaten coastal historic cultural and heritage items and places.

Why it matters

Historic cultural and heritage items, places, and landscapes provide a record of the history of Waitaha/Canterbury including Māori and European settlement, sites, stories, and traditions. The historic heritage of Waitaha/Canterbury suffered major losses in the Ōtautahi/Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes, resulting in an increased desire to protect what is left. Historic cultural places such as marae, urupā, sites of archaeological significance, landmarks, trails, and cultural landscapes are particularly important to the culture, identity and wellbeing of Ngāi Tahu whānau. Inappropriate use, development and subdivision of land can lead to a loss of our historical record that cannot be replaced.

Our current goals

Our Regional Policy Statement includes some direction that must be implemented and other direction that should be implemented. We have included these in two categories below:

1. Things we must do

This is very strong policy direction that is required to be implemented:

  • Identification and protection of significant historic and cultural heritage items, places, and areas.
  • Identification and management of other important historic heritage items, places, and areas.
  • Management of the effects of use, development and subdivision of land on cultural and heritage landscapes, especially in the coastal environment.

2. Things we should do

This policy direction is strongly encouraged:

  • Protection of appropriate access and restriction of inappropriate access to historic cultural and heritage items, places, and areas in accordance with tikanga Māori (customs and protocols).
  • Enabling the appropriate repair, rebuilding, upgrading, seismic strengthening and adaptive re-use of historic buildings in a manner that is sensitive to their historic values.

Should we change our goals?

When we consider changing goals, we need to keep in mind that other on-the-ground changes will be required to meet them. We also need to keep in mind that some of our must-do policy direction was necessary to meet the national legislation requirements of the time. Some new must-dos will be needed to meet more recent legislation.

Potential impacts of changing our policy direction

We have outlined some of the potential consequences that could result from changing our policy direction. These are high-level examples, just to illustrate that each change will have flow-on effects.

Increasing identification and protection of historic cultural and heritage items, places and landscapes, is important to safeguard these environments for future generations. Protecting these environments and items, however, does require restrictions or controls on some activities that could otherwise have lasting adverse effects on their values. Greater levels of protection could require consideration of a wider range of land uses or activities that need to be managed near sensitive environments or items.

We are using feedback we received in July and August to draft more detailed policy options, including detail about the consequences of change. You will get another opportunity to tell us what you think about those options in October this year.