Ngati Whatua to close Auckland's Okahu Bay for tribal event

Auckland's Ngati Whatua tribe is closing Okahu Bay beach tomorrow for a tribal event for what is believed to be the first time since it won co-management of the beach in 1991.

It will hold its annual "mokopuna day" on the beach so that it can include water activities for children.

Spokeswoman Sharon Hawke said the event had been held in previous years on the land reserve behind the beach, but organisers wanted to include water-based activities such as kayaking this year.

A public notice in the East and Bays Courier says the beach will be closed to the public from 6am to 4pm, but Ms Hawke said the tribe would be flexible.

"The backlash from the people thinking what they think around us using our own foreshore has got people prickly, so there is some give and take in that.

"People just need to have a conversation," she said.

The beach is part of a 48ha "Whenua Rangatira" block, including the reserve behind the beach where the tribe once lived and Bastion Point above the bay, which was returned to Ngati Whatua in 1991 under the Treaty of Waitangi. It is managed jointly by the tribe and Auckland Council through the Ngati Whatua Orakei Reserves Board.

Ms Hawke said 400 to 600 people were expected when the mokopuna day was first scheduled just before Christmas, but it had to be postponed then because of bad weather and she did not expect so many people now that the summer holidays were over.

"It's a family day," she said.

She said it was the first time the tribe had exercised its right to use the beach for a tribal event, apart from "civic events" such as ceremonial canoe visits.

"It's unique in that the way they have designed the event requires the use of the land that they have asked for. It's well within their rights," she said.

"It's not the intention of the family to close out the public. It [the beach] is always accessible to the public."