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A Gisborne District councillor says the row over the siting of two replicas of Captain Cook’s Endeavour has showed up the flaws in the consultation model.
In the face of protests from local iwi, the council this week revoked its agreement to reinstate the aluminium replicas on the town’s main street where wooden models had previously stood.
Meredith Akuhata Brown says the project was a private initiative funded through a Givealittle page, and most councillors thought they could rubber stamp it though without consultation.
There is now a chance to do it properly.
"These two replicas, the recommendation is to consult where they can be placed in the region, and that is a good conversation to have because it unpacks what they symbolise, and that is the important part for non-Māori, to understand how the other person feels," Ms Akuhata Brown says.
For many Māori in the region the replicas are a reminder of the murder of 9 people including the chief Te Maro by Cook’s crew.
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