Whangarei mayor Stan Semenoff yesterday apologised on behalf of former councils which had desecrated the Kioreroa Cemetery, removing century-old headstones and using them as landfill.
And he promised the crowd attending the unveiling of a memorial to about 1100 people buried at the cemetery that continuing restoration work there would eventually
have the site alongside Otaika Rd at the southern entrance to the city "looking like a bowling green".
Many of the approximate 250 people present were related to those buried at the cemetery in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Roman Catholic, Baptist, Methodist and Anglican ministers referred to the pain, anguish and frustration relatives had suffered over their ancestors' graves being bulldozed for roading and other developments. Keynote speaker Merv Rusk said the unveiling and cemetery rededication ceremony was "a happy resolution to a lot of hurt and shame".
The memorial, promised by local authorities in 1967, had "been a long time coming", but Mr Rusk - who led public moves to have it erected - said the city now had a cemetery it could be proud of.
He praised former mayor Pamela Peters for initiating the restoration work and Mr Semenoff and his council for carrying through the $100,000 project during the recession.
Pipe Major Colonel Fraser Sim, of the Waipu Highland Pipe Band, played Amazing Grace and Douglas Chowns led a prayer in Gaelic in acknowledgement of the more than 900 people buried at the cemetery who had come from Nova Scotia, Scotland and other parts of Britain.
Te Parawhau kaumatua Fred Tito expressed sympathy for the people with relatives in unmarked graves.
"Some of our ones (urupa) have been desecrated in the past, so we know how you fellas feel," he said.
A light shower which fell during the unveiling was regarded by Maori as a blessing from ancestors.
And as the ceremony ended and the crowd dispersed, Kepa Earles told the Northern Advocate about a series of incidents which Maori believed had a spiritual connection with the cemetery.
He, Mr Tito and Joe Rudolf had last week visited sites where headstones had been dumped for karakia (prayers) in preparation for the unveiling.
At one city site, a kukupa (pigeon) had listened to their prayers. At another, a white blackbird had walked in front of them.
And Mr Earles said that when they were praying near the Onerahi Yacht Club's coastal headquarters "about 18 dolphins - including a white one - started jumping out of the water right in front of us".
