Tamaki in tourism fight

Brian Tamaki has riled Waitomo locals with his commercialisation plans for Te Kopua marae. Photo / Martin Sykes

Bishop Brian Tamaki has built a contentious church and conservative political movement.

His brother Doug has built one of the country's biggest tourism empires.

Now, for the first time, the two have joined forces in a secret legal challenge to take over their historic family marae.

They had planned to incorporate it into a new marae and ultimately a slick new tourism venture on the back-road from Te Awamutu to the popular Waitomo Caves - but they did not count on the furious determination of some locals.

The Maori Land Court has rebuffed an attempt by the millionaire brothers and their associates to depose Te Kopua Marae's six trustees - so the Tamakis are proceeding with a new modern marae, Ngawaero, on a 4.8ha block they own just up the road. They plan to lay the foundations next month.

The Destiny Church leader, already dogged by controversy over his high-profile prosperity theology and trappings of wealth, said he was "sad" at having to take the battle over his ancestral land to court - but Te Kopua leadership had met him with a "fortress mentality".

Marae chairman George Te Ruki rejected that accusation, saying the Tamaki brothers' plans for a big tourism venture, such as the thermal pools and cultural village that Doug Tamaki runs in Rotorua, had caused "a huge amount of stress" at the marae.

"He thought we would bend over and say 'go ahead'," Te Ruki said.

"But we were not about to hand over control of the marae at Te Kopua."

Tamaki Tours had briefed locals on plans to amalgamate Te Kopua with the new marae, run by a Tamaki trust.

But the trustees felt the historic marae was for things such as tangi and reunions: "We did not want it being run as a commercial business."

Another marae member said they feared the marae could be co-opted for Destiny Church purposes - a concern refuted by the bishop who insisted his plans were family business, not church business.

Brian Tamaki, who lives in Auckland and had returned rarely to his family marae, said he and his brother wanted to upgrade the marae, and make it more "progressive".

He had been away for " a long while," he admitted, but "that's where we were born and raised".

Though the existing meeting house dates back only to 1941, the nearby rural community was associated with a thriving 81ha mission station more than a century earlier.

Princess Te Puea Herangi, who united Maori in the King Movement after World War I, was from the area.

Once renowned for their eels, Te Kopua and its rivers are on the way from Te Awamutu to the Waitomo Caves.

The self-proclaimed bishop said he believed it could be a business one day, linked with a new visitor centre and developments at Waitomo.

The Te Kopua battle had remained secret until it came before the Maori Land Court in Hamilton.

The judge told a "packed" courtroom that there was no reason for replacing the trustees as they had always behaved prudently, according to marae lawyer Jason Pou. So the trustees felt they had won the case.

Judge Stephanie Milroy is to issue her judgment this week. She has refused to remove the six trustees, but is understood to have ordered that the upcoming marae trustees election be overseen by the court - a decision Tamaki hailed as a triumph.

Some marae members felt "alienated" by the long-standing trustees, he claimed, and he wanted to instead strive for a more inclusive approach that welcomed new members more heartily.

There is one thing on which marae locals and Brian Tamaki agree. Janet Hedges, who is both the Tamaki brothers' aunt and a marae trustee again, said she had been "saddened" by the court battle.

"Let's face it, those [Tamaki] brothers are clever," she said. But she did not want them taking over - instead, she hoped the brothers and the marae might one day be able to work together.