CONSIDERACIONES SOBRE LAS ADAPTACIONES Y LA APLICACIÓN

Politicians and government officials who had experienced first-hand the American parks of Yellowstone and Yosemite swiftly imported the concept of the national park from its origins in America to the colonies o f Australasia. William Fox, a keen painter, explorer and former premier, is credited with introducing the idea to New Zealand in 1874, citing the protection o f the thermal wonders in Yellowstone as a precedent for the acquisition of the Rotorua thermal region.1 However, the resultant Thermal-Springs Districts Act of 1891 did

'Paul Star and Lynne Lochhead, "Children of the Burnt Bush: New Zealanders and the Indigenous Remnant 1880-1930," in Environmental Histories of New Zealand., ed. Eric Pawson and Tom Brooking (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2002).p.l23.

not lead to a national park and ironically promoted setdement to take advantage of the ‘revenue-producing potential of the sanatoria.’2 It was the colony of NSW that declared the first antipodean national park in 1879, named simply National Park, and considered the world’s second national park as well as Australia’s first public reserve. Credit for the park is attributed to Sir John Robertson who held colonial positions as the Minister o f Lands, Colonial Secretary and Premier during the 1860s and 1870s.3

According to the 1893 Official Guide for the park 17,300 hectares of land was chosen for its proximity to Sydney, its suitability for military manoeuvres, recreation, camping grounds and plantations of ornamental trees and shrubs, together with its landscape characteristics of valleys and gorges, considered ‘a wealth of picturesque and quiet beauty.’4 Origins of National Park therefore share little o f the scenic nationalism and celebration of wilderness that inspired the American national park system. Instead, National Park was conceived o f as a ‘national pleasure ground’ to provide an invigorating experience for the ‘jaded citizens’ o f Sydney and to provide for the acclimatisation of exotic plants and animals.3 6 7 Public health and town planning ideals that advocated the value of open space for urban

development also influenced its origins, and the park was intended for the use of the more than 200,000 people living in Sydney in 1879/’ Similarly, a ‘designed’ picturesque landscape was replicated by South Australia’s first national park, declared at Belair in the Adelaide Hills in 1891. This park was developed as ‘a national recreation and pleasure ground’ for the city of Adelaide, complete with tennis courts, ornamental trees, pavilions and ovals.

O f all the Australian colonies, Tasmania, with its picturesque mountains, lush valleys and fast flowing rivers most easily related to European scenic ideals. By 1863 ‘Reserves for scenic purposes’ were provided for under the Waste Lands Act of 1855, and by the turn of the century Tasmania had designated six scenery reserves, three cave reserves, two fall reserves and a fernery reserve, all of which were considered good tourist potential for the colony.8 Despite the early valuing of scenic landscape, Tasmania was the last of all

2 Ibid, p.123.

3 Brett J. Stubbs, "National Parks and Forest Conservation," Australian and Nein Zealand Forest Histories: Short Overviews Occasional Publication, no. 1 (2005). p.34.

4 Authority o f the Trustees, A n Official Guide to the National Park of New South Wales (Sydney: Government Printer, 1893). p.9.

3 Ibid.

6 Stubbs, "National Parks and Forest Conservation."p.34. 7 Ibid. p.35.

Australian colonies to establish a national park, when it declared Mt Field and Freycinet National Parks in 1916.;

It is clear from this brief summary of the establishment of the early nineteenth century Australian ‘colonial’ national parks that there was no guiding ‘model.’ Instead, their development reflects a mix of attitudes and practices ranging from the health benefits of open space, British ideals of recreation and the picturesque, and the economic possibilities afforded by scenic tourism.

Similar to Tasmania, New Zealand developed an early commitment to scenic preservation rather than national parks that culminated in the Scenery Preservation Act 1903. Pre-dating similar legislation for national parks by seventy years, the Act allowed the compulsory acquisition of private and Maori land if deemed of sufficient scenic quality.1" By the turn of the century, only two New Zealand national parks had been established, Tongariro in 1894 and Egmont in 1900.

Given its status as New Zealand’s first national park, Tongariro has attracted extensive historical inquiry7, thoroughly documented in David Thom ’s Heritage: The Parks of the People, and in specific historical accounts by Cowan, Harlen, Harris, and the Tongariro Natural History Society.11 As one of the oldest examples of the conservation estate, Tongariro also features in analyses o f tourism, scenic preservation, wilderness and conservation in New Zealand. It is, however, something of an anomaly as it was created through the ‘gifting’ of Maori land to the Crown, a unique distinction in the formation of national parks

internationally and one that has significance for its subsequent development.

As this analysis will show, textual and visual representations of Tongariro National Park in guidebooks and tourist advertisements were extremely influential in shaping tourist demand and expectations o f the park. While minimal infrastructure was evident in the park by the early part of the twentieth century, the concept o f the park was significantly revised from a

9 Stubbs, "National Parks and Forest Conservation." p. 39.

10 Star and Lochhead, "Children of the Burnt Bush: New Zealanders and the Indigenous Remnant 1880-1930." p.126. 11 See James Cowan, The Tongariro National Park, New Zealand: Its Topography, Geology, Alpine and Volcanic Features, History and

Maori Folk-Fore (Wellington: Tongariro National Park Board, 1927), Liesl Harlen, "From 'Useless' Lands to World Heritage: A History of Tourism in Tongariro National Park" (Masters of Business Studies, Massey, 1999), W.W Harris, "Three Parks: An Analysis of the Origins and Evolution of the New Zealand National Park Movement" (Master of Arts, University of Canterbury, 1974), David Thom, Heritage: The Parks of the People (Auckland: Lansdowne Press, 1987). Department of Conservation and Tongariro Natural History Society, The Restless Fand: Stories of Tongariro National Park World Heritage Area (Turangi: Department of Conservation, 1998).

late-nineteenth century showcasing of a Maori cultural landscape to a focus on its

‘extraordinariness’, exemplified by its diverse recreational and landscape experiences and its unique origins as a gift. This revision shares many similarities with the Maori Hall at the Dominion Museum, which co-opted Maori culture to provide a sense of historic depth, tradition, and legitimacy to the emerging nation. By restricting recognition o f Maori cultural connections to Tongariro National Park to the act of gifting, the landscape became free to be reinvented as a national space of scenic and recreational wonder, unhindered by any prior history or obligation to Maori.

The Gift

Tongariro National Park was created when the Maori tribe Ngati Tuwharetoa gifted to the Crown the three volcanic peaks of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu, located on the North Island’s Central Plateau. The concept of the ‘gift’ is pivotal to historical and

contemporary accounts o f Tongariro National Park. Historian David Thom claims that the American ideal o f the national park ‘was adopted by a great Maori chief in an act that has no parallel in any other history.’1“ Similarly, the 2007 Management Plan highlights the uniqueness of the ‘gift of an indigenous people,’ stating that the act created ‘a three-way bond between land, Maori and pakeha.’n The park’s nomination as a World Heritage cultural landscape stressed the gift’s significance, claiming that the ‘spirit of the gift continued in the creation of further national parks.’14 All of these accounts perpetuate the view o f the gift as an unconditional act o f generosity and vision on the part of Maori. Yet at the time of writing (2008) the legitimacy of the ‘gift’ is under investigation by the Waitangi Tribunal,15 suggesting that the act may reflect a far more complex negotiation between Maori and the Crown than the term ‘gift’ implies.16

The volcanoes of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu attracted the early attention of European geologists, explorers, missionaries and artists, who generated accounts o f a

12 Thom, Heritage: The Parks of the People, p.xiii.

13 Tongariro/Taupo Conservancy, "Tongariro National Park Management Plan Te Kaupapa Whakahaere Mo Te Papa Rehia O Tongariro," (Wellington: Department of Conservation, 2006).p.20.

14 S P Forbes, "Nomination of the Tongariro National Park for the Inclusion in the World Heritage Cultural List: He Koha Tapu-a Sacred Gift," in Conservation Advisory Science Notes No. 68. (Wellington: Department of Conservation, 1994). p.l 5.

15 The Waitaingi Tribunal was established in 1975 by the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. The tribunal’s role is to make recommendations on claims by Maori relating to actions or omissions of the Crown that breach the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

16 The National Park claim includes the investigation of the alleged ‘gift’ of the mountain peaks by Tuwharetoa paramount chief Te Heuheu Tukino in 1887 and the operations of the Native Land Court in the district. The first hearing of the inquiry took place in February 2006 with the final report not likely to be completed before 2009. For more information see http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/inquiries/nationalpark

rugged interior, populated by Ngati Tuwharetoa and the confederation of Whanganui iwi. These peaks were of immense importance to iwi, and considered so revered or ‘tapu’ that on occasions Maori used leaves as blinkers to prevent an accidental viewing.1 While early European accounts emphasised a visually monumental landscape, to local iwi the volcanic peaks and surrounding land were significant for their spiritual and ancestral values. The mountains (maunga) were intrinsically linked to their whakapapa, part of their genealogical identity, obligating iwi as tangata whenua to safeguard and protect them.18 Such contrasting values towards the volcanic peaks led to clashes over European attempts to climb the volcanoes. John Bidwell’s 1839 ascent o f Ngauruhoe, for instance attracted the ire of then- Paramount Chief Te Heuheu Mananui, to which Bidwill replied dismissively:

I said that a Pakiha [sic] could do no harm in going up, as no place was taboo to a Pakiha; that the taboo only applied to Mowries [sic]; and finally that if the mountain was an atua, I must be a greater atua, or I could not have got to the top of it.19