August 23, 2022
Raglan airstrip going back to hapu
The daughter of Raglan Golf Course occupation leader Eva Rickard says it’s great the Raglan airfield will finally be returned to its Māori owners after almost 90 years.
The airfield was part of a 36-hectare block taken from its Māori freehold owners in 1936.
After World War 2 it was handed not to its original owners but to Raglan County Council, who used some of it for the golf course.
The golf course land was eventually returned in 1987. nine years after the occupation brought the issue to national attention.
Angeline Greensill, who was arrested alongside her mother on the ninth hole of the golf course, says it’s great Waipa District Council has finally seen the light on the airstrip.
She says it brings to mind the words of the late Matiu Rata, the creator of the Waitangi Tribunal.
“‘We’re all victims of our own history. The challenges of the present generation are to rectify past mistakes and to build for the future on a relationship of mutual respect.’ I think that’s a pretty apt description of what the council has done in this case. They’ve realised it’s wrong and they really want to do something right,” Ms Greensill says.
All hapu around Whaingaroa has been working together for many years to get the land back.