Auckland Art Gallery works may be on burial ground

A preliminary sketch showing the proposed additions to the Auckland Art Gallery.

The planned $90 million Auckland Art Gallery redevelopment could encroach on a pre-European sacred burial ground, says leading Maori artist Emily Karaka.

The cultural, heritage and waahi tapu secretary for Ngai Tai ki Tamaki iwi said an archaeological report on the area failed to mention a landslide in 1650 at the rear of the gallery which overwhelmed a village and created a sacred burial ground or urupa.

The artist, whose work is held by the gallery, has been prevented from speaking at a resource consent hearing for the redevelopment, starting tomorrow.

"I know the arts patrons as friends and I'm not too sure they would be happy if indeed koiwi [bones] were unearthed," Emily Karaka said yesterday.

An archaeological report on the site said Maori constructed the Horotiu Pa within Albert Park but no physical evidence remained. The report, prepared by the gallery in consultation with Ngati Whatua as part of its resource consent application, made no mention of a pre-European burial ground.

The burial ground is mentioned in a submission from a retired Auckland man, Alan Taylor, who found the reference in a 1964 book, Place Names of the Volcanic Cones & Craters of the Auckland Isthmus, by George Fowlds.

Senior council planner Earl Brookbanks said Emily Karaka and Ngai Tai had failed to lodge a submission and their correspondence to council could not be taken as a submission because it failed to express any concerns or action to be taken.

Furthermore, art gallery director Chris Saines had written to Ngai Tai in May offering to receive a late submission and agreeing to involve the iwi during excavation work on the site, said Mr Brookbanks.

Emily Karaka said it was agreed that Ngai Tai could make a late submission by coming back in writing, which would reserve its right of objection or consent and put its position to the hearing.

The $90 million redevelopment of the 1887 French-style colonial building has attracted 28 submissions. About half of the submissions are from individuals opposed to the "modernisation" of one of the city's most loved buildings.

"I strongly oppose yet another inharmonious bastardisation of a fine old heritage building," said James Taylor, of Remuera.

Nearby residents Deirdre and James Smithson said: "The proposed expansion of the building is not in sympathy with the architecture of the existing edifice, which is a national treasure. We object to the extension."

However, the gallery has strong backing from the Friends of the Art Gallery and art groups such as the Chartwell Trust.

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust has commended the design challenges of the new and old, while the Institute of Architects' urban issues group supported the project in principle but took issue with the connection between the main Kitchener St entrance and Albert Park.

The resource consent application will be heard tomorrow and Friday.