March 01, 2021
Iwi upset at Erebus statue siting
Ngāti Whātua leader Dame Rangimarie Naida Glavish is mounting a last minute bid to stop construction of an Erebus memorial on a Parnell headland.
Construction was due to start this week of the memorial at Dove-Myer Robinson Park overlooking the Auckland container port.
Dame Naida says while the project got the tick from Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, she believes information was held back from the hapū – and the wider Ngāti Whātua Rūnanga is opposed to it.
While she supports the whānau of Erebus victims having a memorial to the crash 40 years ago, there is no connection between the former Mataharehare Pā site and Antarctica.
“I invite people to go to Mataharehare, stand beside that amazing 180-year-old pōhutukawa tree, that grandly stands and shades and looks out to the harbour and across the Rangitoto, and then say you would be happy to cut some branches off it and dig down to its roots. I stood there and I felt like I was in the arms of our ancestors,” she says.
Dame Naida Glavish wants the Waitematā Local Board to reconsider its approval, which only passed on a 4-3 vote.
Copyright © 2021, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com