Iwi want trustee to stand down
Rangitāne members have called for an iwi trustee to stand down following what they believe are new grapevines planted over an archaeological site.
A group of iwi members stormed Rangitā ne House yesterday afternoon to deliver a letter – with about 50 signatures – to Te Rūnanga a Rangitāne o Wairau general manager Nick Chin.
Group leader Keelan Walker said iwi members wanted Rangitāne trustees to ‘‘stand up’’ and investigate their claims, and not wait around for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga to carry out its separate investigation.
Heritage NZ confirmed last week it was investigating the allegation.
A spokesperson said yesterday the situation remained unchanged and was still under active consideration.
Iwi members have claimed new grapes at Kowhai Pā , near Wairau Bar, are in a ‘‘red zone’’, set out by Heritage NZ.
They believe owner Montford Corporation does not have permission to disturb the site.
Montford Corporation director Haysley Macdonald has been approached for comment.
Chin told the group of concerned iwi yesterday he would pass the letter on to trustees.
‘‘Our position at the moment is that we are waiting to find out what Heritage New Zealand is going to do, they’ll let us know sometime this week, the trustees will make a decision after that,’’
Chin said.
Macdonald was charged in 2016 under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, which makes it illegal to destroy or modify an archaeological site without permission, after he and his father cleared scrub and used machinery on the other side of the Wairau Bar property in 2015.
Those charges were dropped in exchange for a $15,000 donation to Heritage NZ.
He also had to commission an archaeological survey of the property to guide their future use of the land.
Macdonald was an elected trustee at Te Rū nanga a Rangitā ne o Wairau, and director of te Pā Wines, which described its land at Wairau Bar as ‘‘the backbone of our family for 800 years’’, referring to the archaeological finds in the area.
Walker said elected trustees needed to demonstrate knowledge of Rangitā ne tikanga.
The letter also called for a meeting between Rangitāne members and the trust to ‘‘discuss in a united voice to protect Kowhai Pā for future generations’’.
That hui should exclude any trustee or party with a financial interest in the Montford Corporation, and that no legal representatives attend, the letter said.
The group maintained they would occupy the iwi reserve bordering the Montford property in a few weeks.
Kowhai Pā is a Māori settlement where archaeologists have found evidence of urupā (burials), stone ovens, and tools dating back to 1840.
The village site is near Wairau Bar, the earliest known Māori settlement circa 1250AD, known as ‘‘New Zealand’s most significant archaeological landscape’’.