A Ngāti Kahu kaumatua says legal action against a far north development is a waste of the tribe’s resources and has no factual justification.
The Ngāti Kahu Rūnanga says it intends to go to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal consents given by Far North District Council to Carrington Farms to build 12 holiday homes on the Karikari Peninsula.
Atihana Johns says the rūnanga acted on its own without consulting the hapū with mana over the land.
He’s offended the rūnanga is claiming to defend a tapū burial cave.
"No tapū’s been desecrated. We are mihinare people out there. Our religion and our beliefs have evolved, so in 1873 we started burying our dead in a wāhi tapū known as a cemetery. You have to assume on the peninsula that if you see a sand hill there could be koiwi in there, but it is not tapū," he says.
Mr Johns says the battle to stop coastal subdivisions in the far north was lost in the 1960s, and any talk of further court action must stop.
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