Erebus petition signed by 5000
AUCKLAND: A petition to relocate the National Erebus Memorial has collected more than 5000 signatures.
The memorial is intended to pay tribute to the 237 passengers and 20 crew killed in an Air New Zealand flight which crashed into Mt Erebus, in the Antarctic, in 1979.
The petition was started by Erebus family member Margaret Brough, daughter of Aubrey Brough, who says she opposes the location as she does not see any connection to Mt Erebus.
Mataharehare is the proposed site for the National Erebus Memorial, part of Dove Myer Robinson Park in the central Auckland suburb of Parnell.
It is also the pa site of mana whenua iwi Ngati Whatua. The iwi initially consented to the memorial, but Dame Naida Glavish says not everybody was consulted.
``Communication with local iwi has been unclear and not inclusive. All the facts have not been at hand to make a proper and informed decision,'' she said.
Dame Naida and other iwi members have occupied the site in peaceful protest for 40 days.
People who signed the petition said:
Matthew Brajkovich: ``I had relatives die in the crash and they were good people and would not want a memory of the crash and their death to cause more harm. Please reconsider, please do the right thing, please find a better place.''
Janet Cawte: ``It is not at all a suitable place for any kind of memorial. An Erebus memorial should be near the Antarctic
Centre in Christchurch.''
Jo Malcolm: ``It's time to start afresh and get this right — there can be no healing where there is so much division.''
Charles Clark: ``This isn't the right place for this memorial and the current proposal does not meet the families' or the community's needs.''
Before the petition began, Ms Brough said it was her observation that many families were against it, and her preference for a memorial would be in Christchurch, at the International Antarctic Centre.
Ms Brough also wrote: ``Mataharehare is a taonga of Tamaki Makaurau. It is an ancient pa site and home to a notable and majestic 180yearold pohutukawa that is a tupuna.
``It is also a small, beautiful and beloved centralcity park, used by whanau, joggers, dogwalkers, picnickers and treeclimbing children.
‘‘It is a joyous place. It is an inappropriate site for a solemn commemorative memorial of the scale envisaged for the Erebus Memorial.''
The development is said to pierce through the roots of the 180yearold pohutukawa, which Dame Naida is trying to protect.
``The development would destroy a rare, precious, natural remnant of the timeless past and a continued modernday source of wellbeing for all.
‘There are other places to position the memorial without destroying this taonga,’’ she said.
The Ministry of Culture & Heritage has advised it wishes to push on with the development.
Dame Naida is calling for an urgent hui to achieve an outcome that upholds the mana of the Crown, the Treaty partner, all Tamaki and the families affected by Erebus.
The petition's current goal is to get to 7500 signatures, and it requires just over 2000 more to reach this target. — The New Zealand Herald