Ngai Tahu wants to map important ancestral sites and cultural landscapes in the Queenstown Lakes district to ensure they are better recognised in council planning.
Runanga representatives told commissioners in Queenstown yesterday the maps should form the basis of new provisions in the second stage of the council's proposed district plan (PDP).
They were the first verbal submissions to the hearings panel out of the 1200 lodged with the council late last year.
Kai Tahu ki Otago senior planner Maree Kleinlangevelsloo said "wahi tupuna'' mapping would be linked to objectives, policies and rules in the PDP to ensure features such as trails, mountains and battle sites were recognised.
Ngai Tahu had been working with the Dunedin City Council on a wahi tupuna mapping process for the past two years for the Proposed Second Generation Dunedin City District Plan, she said.
Kai Tahu ki Otago principal planner Timothy Vial said when resource consents were lodged with the council that impinged on wahi tupuna maps, provisions would be triggered that gave council planners guidance on how to consider them.
In the interim, before the mapping was completed, placeholders would be inserted throughout the PDP.
During stage 2 of the district plan review, those placeholders would be replaced by provisions ensuring the council fulfills its strategic goal - contained in the PDP's Strategic Direction chapter - to "act in accordance with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and in partnership with Ngai Tahu'', Mr Vial said.
Kai Tahu ki Otago is an environmental consultancy for the four Ngai Tahu runanga in Otago.
Another submission by Oraka-Aparima Runanga executive member Jane Kitson called for an amendment to the PDP to include a policy from the National Policy Statement relating to freshwater management.
The policy required local authorities to take "reasonable steps'' to involve iwi and hapu in the management of fresh water and fresh water ecosystems.
Dr Kitson, whose submission was also made on behalf of Te Ao Marama, said the policy should be included in the Subdivision and Development and Energy and Utilities chapters, and any other chapters having a direct impact on freshwater quality and quantity.
Te Ao Marama is an incorporated society that considers matters relating to the Resource Management and Local Government Acts for Ngai Tahu's four Southland runanga.
It was the second day of hearings for the district plan review. Hearings continue at the Lake Wanaka Centre this morning.
