Airport shut down: We're in charge now

Kaitaia Airport with banners laid by Ngati Kahu occupiers. Photo / Edward Rooney

Meeting protesters occupying Kaitaia Airport over the Te Hiku Treaty settlement would be a waste of time, Treaty Settlement Minister Chris Finlayson has said.

Activists moved on to land at the airport about lunchtime yesterday, taking control of the entrance and forcing flights into and out of the Far North to stop.

Protest leader Wi Popata, of Ngati Kahu, said it was a protest against a $100 million Treaty of Waitangi settlement, due to be ratified today.

The occupiers wanted to meet Mr Finlayson and Far North Mayor John Carter. Mr Carter saw the protesters late yesterday, but Mr Finlayson said he would not bother because it would be a waste of time.

The Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill is due for its third and final reading in Parliament and includes the settlements of four of five Muriwhenua iwi - Te Aupouri, Ngai Takoto, Te Rarawa and Ngati Kuri. Ngati Kahu is the only Te Hiku iwi to not yet settle.

Mr Carter said the closure of air services into and out of Kaitaia was an "unfortunate aspect" of the occupation. About 50 people gathered at the Oturu Marae before walking to the occupation site with fence posts and corrugated iron to construct a marae. They went to the front desk and informed Barrier Air pilot Sam Bowering they were taking over the facility. The airport's operators locked the terminal building as the protesters gathered outside to hear speeches in the carpark.

Another of the organisers, Hone Popata, said they would be occupying land beside the airport terminal, and all air operations would be closed.

"We are in charge now," he said. "The last time we heard from Chris Finlayson he told Ngati Kahu to go to hell. Well, we're here to fight and to take back our land."

Police asked the occupiers to allow the airport company Far North Holdings to retrieve a Barrier Air craft and a fuel truck, which was agreed to. "It's only a plane," one woman said. "We want our land."

But Mr Finlayson said he had "no intention" of meeting the protesters and denied he had told Ngati Kahu to "go to hell".

"That's garbage. I told some people who were occupying a beach up there during the foreshore and seabed [protest of 2010] that they should go to hell but that was years ago. It had nothing to do with the Treaty settlement."

Wi Popata said the airport land was important to three hapu of Ngati Kahu - Patukoraha, Ngai Tohianga and Ngai Takoto - and included important boundaries, with two urupa in the area. The Matenga-Erstich whanau said the owners were "repossessing" land taken for an airfield in WWII.