Burial rows give police cultural nightmare

It has been nearly two years since James Takamore's body was taken from Christchurch but Denise Clarke is adamant the fight to have it returned will go on.

Ms Clarke said she had applied for an order from the High Court at Christchurch, which, if successful, would force the Takamore whanau to disinter her husband's body from his marae at Kutarere, near Opotiki.

"We are still waiting for a confirmed court date," she said. "It's all I know ... and then hopefully we can finally get this sorted."

Mr Takamore, who died in August, 2007, said in his will that he wanted to be buried but did not specify where.

After a confrontation with Ms Clarke, Mr Takamore's mother, sister and brother took his body back to be buried beside his father. The whanau have refused to relinquish the body, saying the burial was done in accordance with tikanga Maori.

"It has certainly been a long, long process," said Ms Clarke.

She said changes to the law were needed to allow police intervention when disputes arose over bodies.

"I think it would be an excellent idea. They certainly need to have more power, definitely ... it's happening too frequently now."

Schoolteacher Patricia Scoble supported the idea. She was on her way to a Hamilton cemetery to wait for her aunty (Ivy) May Ngahooro's body last year when she received a panicked phone call from a relative saying: "Hurry, they've taken her".

Mrs Ngahooro's estranged daughter, Joanne Bennett, and relatives forcibly took the 76-year-old woman's body from a Hamilton funeral home.

They drove her to Taumarunui after a police roadblock and attempts at mediation failed.

It took a court injunction, a hefty legal bill for the Scobles and a long meeting between the two sides of the family before Mrs Ngahooro's initial wish was agreed to two days later.

The saga, Mrs Scoble said, caused both sides of the family unnecessary and massive trauma.

"If they have to set up a court to do it then so be it but it must be within seven days."

In response, the Ministry of Justice recommended late last year that police be given the power to seize bodies involved in disputes with or without a warrant.

A spokesman for Justice Minister Simon Power, said the minister had recently received advice and was discussing the matter with officials.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said the proposed law change would allow clarity for police to act.

"There has been a little bit of standoff for fear of, I suppose, being seen to be culturally insensitive," said Mr O'Connor. "Unfortunately that indecisiveness has caused problems."

Takamore whanau lawyer Moana Tuwhare questioned whether there would be a legitimate mediation process for families once police had exercised their power.

"It also doesn't really address the issue of what are the family rights in accordance with tikanga," she said.

"In practical terms we could have a tupapaku [corpse] in a morgue for days maybe even months and where does that leave everyone?"

Archdeacon Dr Hone Kaa of St John's Theological College said the recommendations were a pity but not a surprise.

"There was a time when people would go to tangi and say this is this person's whakapapa [genealogy] and take the body but you don't see that now," he said.

"There are some people who are so far removed from their roots ... they have used culture as a weapon rather than as a tool of reconciliation."

OTHER CASES

IVY MAY NGAHOORO
The 76-year-old stated in her will that she was to be buried at a Hamilton cemetery but her estranged daughter and relatives forcibly took her body from a funeral home to Taumarunui last March.

Mrs Ngahooro's niece Patricia Scoble immediately obtained a court injunction and, after some debate, her body was returned to Hamilton. She was buried in Newstead Cemetery two days later.

TINA MARSHALL-McMENAMIN
Relatives took the 25-year-old's body from a Lower Hutt funeral home after she died of a drug overdose in late 2007.

She told her stepfather she wanted to be cremated but was instead buried on whanau land on the East Coast.

Her body was disinterred after the families came to an agreement the following week.

Her fiance Daryl Donald James Cox was recently sentenced to two-and-a-half years' jail for her manslaughter after injecting her with a fatal shot of home-made morphine.