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Ohakune iwi Ngati Rangi is defending a meal served to iwi leaders and government ministers that included protected kereru.
The hakari was given when the Iwi Leaders Forum met at Maungarongo Marae, with ministers Nathan Guy and Amy Adams in attendance.
Dame Tariana Turia was also at the hui, but did not attend the hakari.
Ngati Rangi spokesperson Che Wilson told Radio Waatea the native pigeons had been collected by the Department of Conservation and given to the iwi so the feathers could be used by weavers, but nothing was left to waste.
"Our interpretation was that the kereru were for cultural purposes so we interpreted that in a certain way and that’s why we have deliberately gone straight back to the department to work with them," he says.
Mr Wilson would like to see resources put in to assessing the state of the kereru population and to protecting stocks.
He says some Ngati Rangi members including his parents cook chicken with miro berries as a sort of substitute kereru.
Ngapuhi leader Sonny Tau will appear in the district court in Invercargill on Friday to face a charge of being in possession of five of the birds last month.
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