KEY POINTS:
A group of Maori found guilty of trespassing on land they believe is their own will fight the decision in the High Court.
Phillip Habib, Brock Marumaru, Doreen Ngawhika, Laurayno Ngawhika, Te Awhina Ngawhika, Patrina Ritete, Samara Ritete, Shane Wall, William Wallace and Georgina Whitu appeared in the Taupo District Court.
After a two-day defended hearing, Judge Chris McGuire found the group guilty of one charge of wilful trespass each. He discharged Doreen Ngawhika without a conviction because of evidence that the weight on her shoulders to protect the land was even stronger than the other nine as she was entrusted with the guardianship of the land.
Judge McGuire convicted the nine others and ordered them to come up for sentence if called upon within 12 months.
The group were charged after they failed to leave an Acacia Bay site on June 27. The site is leased to Auckland-based developers Symphony Group for a residential development by trustees of the Hiruharama Ponui Inc Trust.
However, the trespassers do not believe the lease is valid. They say it was leased to the developers by trustees who had no authority to sign the lease. They say they went on to the land to monitor it after koiwi, or remains, were found and say it is wahi tapu, or sacred land.
Judge McGuire said the group had raised a significant number of issues he was ill equipped to deal with as a district court judge. He accepted the group had genuine and heartfelt concerns after koiwi were found on the site and had decided as a hapu to go on to the site to take on a monitoring role. He also recognised transgressions in the trust but said the Maori Land Court and Maori Appellant Court both upheld the lease as being legal, so he too had to. He hoped the group would keep talking with the trustees, and the trustees with the developers, in a bid to find some way to move forward.
Outside the court, Georgina Whitu said the group would now go to the High Court to appeal the decision.
She said they didn't want to be stuck with the conviction because they believed that they owned the land.
Whitu said she was pleased in some ways that the decision now gave them the opportunity to air their grievances, especially those regarding the validity of the lease, in the High Court, which might have the jurisdiction to review it.
Whitu said the wahi tapu was still over the land and stopped anyone, including themselves, from going on the site and they would take action if anyone did.
- Daily Post
