An occupation aimed at stopping development on ancient stonefields near Auckland Airport has split the village of Ihumatao.
Members of Save Our Unique Landscape or SOUL are occupying a council-owned site next to where Fletcher Residential aims to build more than 400 homes.
But Te Warena Taua, the chair of Makaurau Marae Trust, says SOUL was nowhere to be seen when the village unsuccessfully fought to stop development of the land next to the Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve five years ago.
"SOUL is mainly made up of Pakeha professional protesters, They do have on board a handful of people from our village but at no time has either Makaurau Marae Maori Trust Board or the Makaurau Marae Committee, neither of them have been supportive of SOUL," he says.
Te Warena Taua says once the Fletcher’s development was forced through under the special housing areas legislation, Ihumatao’s position was to engage with the developer to mitigate its effects, rather than continue to fight it outright.
