March 23, 2021
Spurned offer prompts Pataua occupation
Members of a Northland hapū are occupying land at Pataua near the Whangarei Heads after their offer to top other bids was rejected.
Kelly Klink says there are decades of ill-feeling about the way land in the area was lost to Māori by questionable land sales and by government actions, such as allowing reclamation on fishing grounds.
Promises to provided road access to Māori land also were not honoured, creating ongoing problems.
She says when a block was put up for sale the vendors rejected an offer of $1 above the highest bid, in what seems to be an echo of history.
"The first time my grandpā went to buy it he was 30 pounds short and they wouldn't sell the land to us. They sold it to a Pākehā who was 100 pounds short. So this mamae for our whānau has been ongoing for a long time and now the land is for sale we've been trying our hardest to get it back into whānau-hapū hands," Klink says.
She says police have visited the occupation site.
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