February 14, 2014
Grace land confirmed at kainga site
The Maori Land Court has heard that family land at Waikanae owned by award winning novelist Patricia Grace has been continuously occupied for at least 500 years.
Mrs Grace wants the land given the status of a Maori reservation as part of a bid to stop it being taken for the Kapiti Expressway.
Archaeologist Susan Thorpe told the court the land was at the very heart of the Tuku Rakau village and had high archaeological value.
It was likely burials had taken place there, and they were near a registered wahi tapu – a place sacred to Maori.
She says although little archaeological work had been done on the land, it was known to be an extremely important landscape.
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