Concerns over burial site
A descendant of family members buried at an unmarked historic Riverton cemetery believes more respect needs to be shown to Southland’s ancestors.
Southland District Council contractors removed 35 steel posts from the west side of the river mouth at Riverton yesterday. The posts previously were in place to try to stop erosion into the land.
However, the steel posts had become exposed and in a high tide they stuck out of the water, which provided a safety risk for boat users.
Metres from where the posts were removed is an urupa¯, which family descendant Anne-Maree Thomas believed was the first integrated European and Ma¯ori burial site in New Zealand.
Thomas said bones had already been found as a result of the erosion and they would continue to if something was not done to help protect the land.
Given it was so close to a burial site, contractor Dave Halder said it was a matter of taking extra care when operating his digger.
O¯ raka Aparima Runaka general manager Riki Dallas visited the site yesterday when diggers pulled the posts from the ground in case anything of significance was discovered.
Nothing was found but
Dallas was also concerned about the continued erosion and what it meant for the historic urupa¯.
He hoped the area could be protected.
‘‘It’s the only connection we’ve got to our ancestors,’’ Dallas said.
Riverton is the oldest permanent settlement in Southland and Thomas believed Riverton’s past had not been honoured well enough.
‘‘Apart from inside the museum, there is nothing really there to say there was a Ma¯ori settlement [in Riverton],’’ she said.
A combined approach from the Southland District Council, Nga¯i Tahu, and others, should be initiated to protect the land and also acknowledge the historic significance of the cemetery, Thomas said.
As well as the erosion, the burial site was overgrown by gorse and there was nothing to highlight it was a cemetery and also the story attached to the land.
She felt the council could help by constructing a barrier to protect the land from erosion, while Nga¯i Tahu should help to ensure the site was cleared, a monument erected, and signage put up to explain the history of the site.
Done properly, Thomas felt it could be a poignant place in Southland for people to visit. A decade ago Thomas did approach Nga¯i Tahu about investing in such a project, however, the principal South Island iwi showed little interest.
‘‘In the North Island, if you even get close to a bone they will stop building a highway, but in the South Island [Nga¯i Tahu] doesn’t seem to care.
‘‘We’ve got a culture now that after being dead for 30 years you are forgotten.’’
Nga¯i Tahu officials did not respond to questions from Stuff about the Riverton burial site.
Southland District Council community facilities contract manager Greg Erskine said, at this stage, there were no plans to put new barriers in place to try to stop further erosion.
‘‘We will be monitoring the area closely to see what transpires naturally,’’ Erskine said.