his koro\u2019s<\/a> welfare guardian. <\/p>\nThe elderly man\u2019s son argued his sister\u2019s decision to move him to Auckland ignored the wishes their father had conferred in an \u014dh\u0101k\u012b (last wishes).<\/p>\n
He was unable to give an exact time and place when this was made but spoke in general terms about his father having expressed a wish to be \u201chome\u201d in Te Tai Tokerau to a number of people, on a number of occasions. <\/p>\n
In an affidavit prepared for the court, the son said: \u201cMy father directly conferred full and final authority upon me under tikanga and sacred law prior to any cognitive decline.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his father expressly affirmed he held \u201ctino rangatiratanga over his care decisions and end of life process\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201c[The son] considers the \u014dh\u0101k\u012b is valid and binding because it was expressed before his father\u2019s cognitive decline,\u201d the judge said in his decision. <\/p>\n
The daughter said their father was always talking about going back to live on the whenua, it was \u201cpeppered through his conversation\u201d. <\/p>\n
She viewed and continued to view the father\u2019s \u014dh\u0101k\u012b as being something for the future, \u201cit was his dying wish. He wasn\u2019t dying\u201d. <\/p>\n
The decision said the son and his wh\u0101nau were distressed when their father was moved to Auckland, and there was a confrontation when they arrived at the facility. <\/p>\n
As a result, temporary protection orders were issued to protect the father and his daughter against his son and daughter-in-law. Another sister also obtained temporary protection orders. <\/p>\n
These remain in place, with the judge noting their existence has been seismic for the wh\u0101nau. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a palpable sense of mistrust and some anger between them, which was evident during the hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of the hearing, the judge encouraged the parties to call a hui, kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face), to try to bridge the differences between them, but said, \u201cI cannot compel them to do that\u201d. <\/p>\n
Judge Muir stated he was unable to find on the balance of probabilities that the father expressed an \u014dh\u0101k\u012b for his son to make decisions on his behalf or require him to be in a care facility in Te Tai Tokerau. <\/p>\n
The judge said this was because he had no reliable evidence that the concept of \u014dh\u0101k\u012b could be extended or applied beyond the concept of a dying wish, and the man was very much alive. <\/p>\n
He also referred to a clinical assessment from 2018, which indicated the man preferred to place his trust in his daughter to make decisions about his personal care. <\/p>\n
\u2018I chose the option that is hopeful\u2019<\/p>\n
The judge noted the daughter and the man\u2019s grandson were capable of being welfare guardians.<\/p>\n
In the daughter\u2019s case, she had shown herself highly capable of carrying out the duties in a satisfactory manner. <\/p>\n
But the judge said there was a real prospect that his grandson would be able to unite the four pillars of the wh\u0101nau \u2013 the kaum\u0101tua\u2019s four children and their children.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, the family remains fractured. Some of the wounds are deep. Some of them seem to relate to the different relationships that the four children had with their mother,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Explaining his decision to appoint the man\u2019s grandson as welfare guardian, he said: \u201cI chose the option that is hopeful. I find the father\u2019s wairua is likely to be better sustained if responsibility is passed to his mokopuna.\u201d <\/p>\n
But he also imposed a number of conditions, including appointing the grandson as welfare guardian for a period of three years. <\/p>\n
He also ordered the man to remain at the Auckland facility and not return to Te Tai Tokerau until a suitable care facility was found, medical professionals supported the move and wh\u0101nau were consulted. <\/p>\n
In his closing remarks, the judge thanked the daughter for her selfless devotion and love she\u2019d shown to her father. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hope this wh\u0101nau might recognise the real need that their father has to see his family healed. I hope that they might recognise that that is in their interests as well.\u201d <\/p>\n
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But the family is divided and for the wh\u0101nau\u2019s long-term wairua to thrive they \u201cmay need to find…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,30857,806,5837,536,1349,30861,799,2109,22494,30862,305,30864,30860,30858,30863,111,139,69,1523,3271,213,165,30859],"class_list":["post-32553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-appoints","tag-as","tag-battle","tag-care","tag-court","tag-deadlocked","tag-dementia","tag-family","tag-guardian","tag-guardianship","tag-have","tag-kaumtua","tag-kaumtuas","tag-mokopuna","tag-muchloved","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-should","tag-sports","tag-their","tag-whnau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32553","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=32553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}