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Alternatively called the the Piripai Block by those wishing to develop it and the \u014cpihi Block by those who consider it sacred land, this beachside area has been the cause of legal dispute for more than 20 years <\/p>\n\u201cThe harm you cause by holding a bone in your hand is irreversible,\u201d \u014cpihi Whanaungakore trustee Hemi Hireme told the Environment Court this week.<\/p>\n
The hearing, at which trustees of the ancestral urup\u0101 opposed Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga\u2019s archaeological authority for residential development at Piripai, was held over Tuesday and Wednesday at REAP House.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the provisions in the authority for protocol around the discovery of koiwi (human remains), he said, \u201cif you are finding koiwi, it\u2019s too late\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got a bone in your hand, it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n
While a 56\u2011acre (22.6 hectare) lot at Piripai was vested to Ng\u0101ti Awa trustees in 1878 as a native burial reserve, the current trustees maintain that the area where early M\u0101ori settlers were buried does not stop at the 56 acres.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat 56 acres was an arbitrary colonial line,\u201d Hireme said.<\/p>\n
Hireme told the court he believed \u014cpihi Whanaungakore stretched for 600 acres from Turuturu Roimata (The Statue of Wairaka at The Heads) to Ohuirehe. It was where eponymous ancestors of M\u0101taatua were buried and where their spirits returned from ancestral homelands of Hawaiki when called to come back by karakia and karanga.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat place is ahu wairua. We don\u2019t know how those people can live there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The case was heard before a panel headed by Judge Jeff Smith, and including Judge David Cauldwell, and Environment Commissioners Glenice Paine and Shona Myers. <\/p>\n
It involves the 26.9ha Whakat\u0101ne District Council-owned block next to the official urup\u0101 site. The council entered into a sale and purchase agreement with developer MMS GP in 2017, which became unconditional in 2018.<\/p>\n
Because the sale is subject to gaining consent, the sale has not yet settled, however, MMS GP is still contractually bound to the purchase.<\/p>\n
Heritage New Zealand granted Archaeological Authority prior to the district council granting consent for the development.<\/p>\n
Te Runanga o Ng\u0101ti Awa, Ng\u0101i Taiwhakaea and \u014cpihi Whanaungakore appealed the Archaeological Authority and a hearing was scheduled for 2022. MMS GP asked for an adjournment for the parties to come to an agreement out of court.<\/p>\n
Agreement was reached with the r\u016bnanga for a modified plan using half the land area of the original 240 lot development and including a 300-metre buffer zone between residential developments and the urup\u0101.<\/p>\n
\u014cpihi Whanaunakore trustees maintained their opposition to the development.<\/p>\n
Counsel for the trustees Max Harris said Heritage New Zealand had made significant errors in granting Archeological Authority.<\/p>\n
Alternatively called the the Piripai Block by those wishing to develop it and the \u014cpihi Block by those who consider it sacred land, this beachside area has been the cause of legal dispute for more than 20 years <\/p>\n
He said there were two ways the court could approach the case, either by remitting the decision back to Heritage NZ with the recommendation that it go to a full M\u0101ori Heritage Council, or reverse the granting of the authority.<\/p>\n
The preferred decision of the trustees was that it be put before the full M\u0101ori Heritage Council, which had specialist expertise in safeguarding M\u0101ori heritage. <\/p>\n
Although there were no known archaeological sites, Dr Harris said Heritage NZ\u2019s internal assessment had identified that the development had the potential to uncover subsurface archaeological artefacts of early M\u0101ori settlers, therefore should have been put before the council.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe (Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga) Act is quite clear when matters need to be referred to the council.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even by Heritage NZ\u2019s own criteria, it should have triggered a referral to the council, he said.<\/p>\n
Although the application had provided cultural impact statements from Te R\u016bnanga o Ng\u0101ti Awa and Ng\u0101i Taiwhakaea, \u014cpihi Whanaungakore Trustees had not been given an opportunity to provide one.<\/p>\n
Hireme had not been contacted until he learned of the decision.<\/p>\n
Counsel for Heritage NZ Stephanie De Groot said Heritage NZ admitted it had incorrectly recorded that it had received a cultural impact statement from the trustees. It also recorded incorrectly that the parties did not oppose the Archaeological Authority.<\/p>\n
Judge Smith said while the parties had indicated they wished to be involved if any discovery of archaeological artefacts or koiwi were discovered during excavation of the site, that could not be interpreted as approval. <\/p>\n
De Groot said under the Act, it had no requirement to consult.<\/p>\n
The senior archaeologist who carried out the archaeological assessment, Dr Rachel Darmody, gave evidence that she had taken two calls from Hireme wanting to oppose the application and in both cases had escalated these to the appropriate people in the organisation. These had not been acted on.<\/p>\n
Heritage NZ acting chief executive Dean Whiting told the court that although he thought Hireme\u2019s latest statement provided greater understanding of the importance of the site to M\u0101ori, he did not feel that it would have made a difference to the decision to grant Archaeological Authority. <\/p>\n
Counsel for MMS GP Vanessa Hamm drew the court\u2019s attention to the 2002 Ng\u0101ti Hokopu ki Hokowhitu vs Whakat\u0101ne District Council case pertaining to the same site.<\/p>\n
At the time, Te R\u016bnanga o Ng\u0101ti Awa had wanted to situate the M\u0101taatua meeting house on the site.<\/p>\n
In that case, Sir Hirini Mead, then chairman of the r\u016bnanga, defined the extent of the urup\u0101 as being within the vested reserve. He had expressed the opinion that it was extraordinary because it is so large and that most w\u0101hi tapu were small. <\/p>\n
Judge Smith accepted that colonial surveys of the area may not have been done in consultation with tangata whenua.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe urup\u0101 was determined by a European surveyor and I accept there may have been some errors in that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said some people used the term w\u0101hi tapu for areas that were culturally significant for M\u0101ori, but did not fit with the legal definition of the term.<\/p>\n
Use of the area as a place for fishing, birding, eeling and other activities did not suggest to him that the entire area was w\u0101hi tapu.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou couldn\u2019t do that if it was entirely tapu.\u201d<\/p>\n
The panel deferred their decision to a later date.<\/p>\n
Judge Smith commented the case was complex and may take some months to deliberate.<\/p>\n
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe harm you cause by holding a bone in your hand is irreversible,\u201d \u014cpihi Whanaungakore trustee Hemi Hireme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[273,111,43,139,69,151245],"class_list":["post-283391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-urupa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}