Montford Corp fined for damage to Wairau Bar site
Mana “trampled on”, sadness, anger, and “pain” have been described in Blenheim’s courthouse by those affected by a company’s deliberate wrongdoing.
A company was fined on Friday morning more than four years after damaging a “nationally significant” archaeological site, which it admitted to last year.
The company can now be named as Montford Corporation Limited, after interim name suppression lapsed on Friday. Montford did not seek permanent name suppression.
Russell “Barney” Thomas of Ngāti Rārua told the court he was pained by the offending.
“I’m saddened, I’m embarrassed, and I’m angry about having to be here,” he said.
“Are the whānau remorseful?” Thomas asked, referring to Montford.
“I come today, and I don’t see them, so I’m saddened that the only person I’m talking to is you,” he said to the judge. Montford was not present for sentencing.
Kura Stafford, iwi board member, expressed Ngāti Rārua’s wish for the matter to have been dealt with through a tikanga approach, which he said would have given them the opportunity to express to Montford how the offending had affected their wairua and spiritual wellbeing.
“We are deeply hurt by their actions ... our whānau felt that their mana was trampled on,” Stafford said.
Keelan Walker of Rangitāne o Wairau said the preservation of the site as “wāhi tapu” was paramount, pointing to a tattoo of the site on his arm.
“The integrity of that site has been compromised,” Walker told the judge.
“So I ask that you hear our words, and you consider them seriously.”
Officials were tipped off about earthworks taking place at a site on Marlborough’s Wairau Bar, an area known as “New Zealand's most significant archaeological landscape”.
Moa bones and adzes found there were
thought to date back to the 1200s.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga’s summary of facts said Montford requested permission from Heritage NZ to “modify or damage” the site in August 2019.
The application was sent back undetermined, due to lack of iwi consultation.
When Montford asked what constituted iwi consultation, Heritage NZ responded with a list of nine local iwi and contact details, but an amended application was not lodged.
The company sent a letter to Rangitāne o Wairau, outlining the plan for work with “very limited disturbance” and inviting Rangitāne to respond.
Montford started earthworks between September and December 2019. An irrigation trench 50cm deep was excavated in a straight line, rather than the zigzag that was proposed in the company’s application to avoid disturbing recorded archaeological features.
Two days later, Ngāti Rārua o Te Wairau
Society sent an email saying it was “extremely concerned that the developers [had] caused damage to archaeological sites on [the] whenua”.
Ngāti Toa Rangatira ki Wairau Trust also emailed Heritage NZ, saying the area had been occupied for many generations, and had “archaeological evidence on the surface of the ground”.
Heritage NZ staff who visited the area on December 20, 2019, found that the company’s work had disturbed archaeological sites with oven stones, fire-cracked rock, broken shell, and stone flakes/lithic material.
Archaeological material had also been affected by the digging of the trench, although the extent of the damage could not be seen as the trench had been backfilled.
The trench crossed an area known to contain archaeological materials.
Archaeologists found minor damage to shallower archaeological material, and more significant damage to deeper material. When spoken to by Heritage NZ, Montford agreed to stop the works until further notice, but days later had engaged contractors to carry on.
Montford pleaded guilty to the charge of damaging an archaeological site at the Blenheim District Court on August 11 last year.
Two charges previously laid against a company with a different name were withdrawn, and that company, and a person involved, were granted permanent name suppression.
All four victims who addressed the judge on Friday outlined their opposition to the permanent name suppression.
Judge David Ruth referred the matter to restorative justice in August and granted Montford interim name suppression. The sentence date was initially set for September 15, but adjournments resulted in the hearing being pushed back until Friday. Restorative justice did not go ahead.
The maximum penalty for the offence was $120,000.
On Friday, Judge Ruth said Montford’s offending was deliberate, and the company knew they did not have authority from Heritage NZ.
He said he was grateful to the victims who gave statements in court.
“They bring with them, as I have seen today, a wealth of knowledge, which is valuable beyond my ability to describe it,” he said.
“Only by understanding our history, do we have any chance of moving forward, in a collaborative way, in the future,” he said, paraphasing kōrero heard earlier that day.
The judge said he understood the archaeological site damaged by Montford had been referred to as “cradle of civilisation in New Zealand”.
“As far down as one can perhaps go, there will be evidence of ways of life, artefacts relating to those ways of life,” he said.
The judge set the sentencing start point at $85,000 before giving discounts, including 25% for the guilty plea in August.
Montford was a fined a total of $55,250.