Why Ngāti Hau is occupying a school abandoned 20 years ago

Descendants of Northland’s Ngāti Hau are calling for the Crown to return a long-abandoned school to their hapū and take the cost of that return on the chin.

Tōwai Primary School in Northland was closed in 2005 and declared surplus to the Ministry of Education’s needs. All students transferred to Maromāku School.

The land was passed to Kāinga Ora - then known as Housing New Zealand - which also declared the school surplus to its needs in 2010, and was sold by the Crown to a private buyer, who has now listed the property for sale.

“Hapū have suffered, and continue to suffer, significant losses as a direct result of unlawful actions of the Crown,” the hapū said in a statement to Te Ao Māori News yesterday.

“Any costs the Crown may have incurred from landbanking the property for hapū would have been minuscule compared to the significant losses it has caused hapū.”

Ngāti Hau, a hapū (subtribe) of the Ngāpuhi iwi, asserts the Crown has caused further injustice by selling the school property privately.

“As partial redress for losses, Ngāti Hau uri (descendants) want the Crown to purchase the property from the owner at market value and return it to hapū at no cost.”

The statement also lays out the descendants’ intention to occupy the property, “until such time as an acceptable resolution is reached”, inviting whanaunga hapū and supporters to join them.

Green MP Huhana Lyndon

Ngāti Hau uri and Green MP Huhana Lyndon says the crown needs to buy the property for fair market value and hand it over to the hapu.

“Ngāti Hau Akerama whanau, the haukainga of Tōwai, are in there occupying right now. They’re there and they want to hold that space because the crown call is the Crown needs to do right. They were asked over a decade ago to protect that land for hapū purposes and so the call is the crown needs to step up and do right by the vendor and do right by the hapū and bring it back into hapū hands,” Lyndon says.

Additional reporting Claudette Hauiti, Waatea.News.Com