April 18, 2021
Trust buys back disputed land
A member of a hapū occupying coastal land at Pātaua near Whangārei says they’ve ecstatic it is now back in the hands of mana whenua.
Pūkahakaha East 5B Ahuwhenua Trust bought the 57-hectare Porotangi block by private tender, more than 60 years after it was lost to the whanau in an inheritance dispute.
The trust last week went to the Māori Land Court to gain full control of its neighbouring lands, freeing up millions of dollars in accumulated rentals.
Kelly Klink says a three-week occupation of a neighbouring Department of Conservation reserve alerted other potential buyers to the importance of the block to Te Waiariki hapu.
"We wanted it. It means so much to us. There's pā sites. There's urupā. There's a lot of wāhi tapu out there and we understood the sacredness of that whenua and it needed to come back to hapū," she says.
Ms Klink says she’d like to see a law changing giving Māori a right of first refusal when former Māori land comes up for sale.
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