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Family of original Māori owners of East Coast rugby ground want the land back
Council officials say they will be investigating potential co-governance of the ground at Tokomaru Bay
The former playing field of All Blacks grassroots hero Andy Jefferd is at the centre of an ownership tug of war, with some iwi members claiming it was sourced illegally and labelling it “wāhi tapu” due to bloody battles there centuries earlier.
And a descendant of the land’s originalowner has told the Herald sports should no longer be played there out of respect for the fallen.
The lease of Hatea-a-Rangi Memorial Park – home of the Tokomaru Bay United Sports Club – is a hotly debated subject in sections of the East Coast community.
Tokomaru Bay’s Hatea-a-Rangi Memorial Park and its sports club (the green-roofed buildings on the beach side) are at the centre of a long-running ownership dispute which is continuing despite a recent council decision. Photo / Ben Cowper, Gisborne Herald
Gisborne District Council (GDC) has offered the footy club an extension to the lease, but with the recommendation that council staff “investigate establishing a co-governance agreement” for the ground’s ongoing management.
That extension was opposed by some members of the local iwi, including relatives of previous Māori owners.
That includes artist Keita Brightwell-Hauiti who - along with others - is fighting for the land to be returned to its former Māori owners, despite the council’s offer to extend the lease.
Brightwell-Hauiti says playing sport on the land is insensitive to the bloodshed spilled there during Ngāpuhi raids on Ngāti Porou during the battle in the so-called “Musket Wars” in 1818.
The land Hatea-a-Rangi Memorial Park has since been built on was also used as a burial site for locals who died during the influenza pandemic that killed about 9000 New Zealanders a century later.
“The land is wāhi tapu, it is a sacred land,” Brightwell-Hauiti told the Herald.
The rugby ground at Tokomaru Bay was the scene of bloody battles after Ngāpuhi raids on the East Coast during the Musket Wars. Photo / Neil Reid
“Given the spiritual aspect to it, having people playing rugby games and having the sports club there, and not properly going about things, [is wrong].
“It shouldn’t be used for that purpose [as a sports ground], it is contradictory to wāhi tapu... it is not respectful.”
Some of the opposition dates back decades but ramped up again in the months before the council’s lease extension approval.
The Tokomaru Bay United Sports Club’s application also featured a request for it to redevelop part of the clubrooms’ outdoor area.
During a prior development in the 1990s, bones were dug up - which locals are adamant were human. At the time, others claimed they were not human, a council document prepared by GDC principal community assets and partnerships adviser Chris Visser said.
The submission period for the new lease closed last December.
Oral submissions were then heard in May, with the matter being considered by a GDC hearing panel, with a council document saying there was a “high level of interest in the outcome of this process from the local community”.
Andy Jefferd is one of East Coast rugby's favourite sons and the only player in the history of the province to debut for the All Blacks while playing rep rugby on the coast. Photo / Neil Reid
Given the strength of submissions posted for and against the lease, the council said that “any decision carries with it some risk of adverse public reaction”.
The panel’s recommendations were presented to the council in August.
They advised that the lease should be granted but also directed council staff to “establish a co-governance agreement for the ongoing management” of the ground.
Earlier, the council was told how the “land was taken by nefarious means” and it should be returned.
“One submitter states that the ‘gift’ of the land by the original owners was conditional of there being a co-governance structure for the Reserves, and this does not exist.”
Two of the jerseys that Andy Jefferd proudly wore during his All Blacks career. Photo / Neil Reid
Among submissions opposing the lease renewal was one from Brightwell-Hauiti, who said her late grandmother had told her “to continue to make movements for the return of her land from perpetual leases”.
Brightwell-Hauiti also argued the land was “wāhi tapu”; a place of special spiritual, cultural and historical significance to the local people.
Another descendant of the original owners, Tina Olsen-Ratana, said in her written submission that the land was initially taken “by dubious means”.
Over time, they agreed to “gift” the land as long as it was run by a “co-governance structure”. The latter never happened despite efforts from the family.
Another submission opposing the move – from Tracey Takarua, also a descendant of the original owners – highlighted historical battles on the coastal site.
“We know that this whenua was a battleground and our fallen warriors, friend or foe, lie beneath,” Takarua wrote.
Tokomaru United Sports Club became a refuge for locals during Cyclone Gabrielle, which caused massive damage on the East Coast, including this destruction of SH35 near Tokomaru Bay. Photo / George Heard
“We know that in 1997, when the clubroom extensions were done, that ko iwi were unearthed, taken and buried in a shallow unmarked spot in the urupa at Tuatini Marae.”
The clubrooms at Hatea-a-Rangi Memorial Park are used much more widely than just being the beachside community’s rugby club.
The facility also been used in Civil Defence emergencies, by local Covid-19 response teams, by the local school, and also by fishing and surfing clubs.
Submissions in support of the extensions included from the Gisborne Volunteer Centre, Ngāti Porou Boardriders Club, Awhina Fishing Club, the Tokomaru Bay RSA, the local school, a local Civil Defence co-ordinator and a relative of one of the sports club’s founders.
Members of the Ngāti Porou East Coast gather in a huddle after a training session at Tokomaru Bay's contentious rugby field in 2012. Photo / Neil Reid
The Tokomaru Bay United Sports Club also made a passionate submission, with club chairman Rob McKenzie stressing the facility was used for much more than simply a footy ground and was regarded as a “hub” by a number of community groups.
“Tokomaru Bay United Sports Club is an important community hub that is utilised during the day and evening to host hui, trainings, is a space for our school children to engage, a space for our rangatahi to learn in terms of succession planning and in the heart of the community during a Civil Defence emergency and Covid-19 community transmission and manaaki support,” McKenzie wrote.
The club operated a well-run bar, McKenzie wrote, which was open up to five times a week and its “committee also works closely with the Tokomaru Bay based police to deter members from driving under the influence of alcohol”.
The Ngāti Porou East Coast rugby team has previously used the Tokomaru Bay ground as a midweek training venue and occasionally for NPC matches. Photo / Neil Reid
He was famously called up as a replacement during the All Blacks’ 1980 tour of Australia and Fiji, playing two matches in Fiji.
The following year, Jefferd played test matches against Scotland and South Africa, before his career was cruelly cut short by a back injury.
At that time of his career, the East Coast rugby team was the country’s least successful province on the field; a fact borne out by Jefferd winning just one of his 32 games for the Sky Blues.
Hatea-a-Rangi Memorial Park was formally established as a reserve in 1946.
A framed portrait photo of Andy Jefferd in All Blacks kit hangs proudly above the bar at the Tokomaru United Sports Club clubroom, at Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast. Photo / Neil Reid
A council document says four years later it was extended and four out of the nine positions available on the Domain Board were allocated to “representatives of the Māori owners”.
The board was disestablished in the late 1980s, with the authority of the land going to the GDC in 1992.
When the clubrooms were built in 1997, the council was notified that human bones had been unearthed and some locals wanted works stopped as the site was “wāhi tapu”.
Talking to the Herald, Brightwell-Hauiti said she had been told some of the bones – which she and others are adamant were human remains – had been thrown over a fence, and not interred respectfully.
“Because of that it became more urgent for us to sort it,” she said.
“I have heard from whānau that there have been quite a lot of horrific injuries occur [on the field], and they think it is because of the spiritual element. Whether or not people believe in that ...
“But for them [whānau] it is something that needs to be resolved to lay things to rest properly, just out of respect.”
Her uncle erected a pouwhenua (carved wooden post) nearby in 2005, an act designed to show the site was Māori land.
“The whānau wanted the land back so we could do what we needed to make things noa, the opposite of tapu,” Brightwell-Hauiti said.
“But we were constantly, continuously, ignored,” she claimed.
Brightwell-Hauiti has spent several years probing the history of Hatea-a-Rangi Memorial Park, as well as investigating the issue of controversial perpetual leases in and around Tokomaru Bay.
The land was confiscated from local Māori and a settler initially sourced it for the purpose of a cricket pitch, she said.
“Those types of leases were abolished in the UK... but they are still on some Māori land,” she said.
The perpetual leases on some of the land in Tokomaru Bay are for terms of 999 years due to a clerical error. Photo / Ben Cowper, Gisborne Herald
“That is how they keep us off our land, we have no control. It is a disaster for us as landowners as we are faced with leases that are 999 years long.”
GDC liveable communities director Michele Frey told the Herald the lease extension document was with the Tokomaru United Sports Club for signing.
Work on potential co-governance agreements for Hatea-a-Rangi Memorial Park hadn’t started yet, “however it’s something we’re working towards”.
“This year has seen many of our staff focused on recovery work,” Frey said. “This has meant other work scheduled to be started this year had to be reprioritised.
“We’re optimistic work will be able to start next year, which will include historic due diligence on the land ownership.”
The seaside settlement of Tokomaru Bay is 90km north of Gisborne heading up towards East Cape. Photo / Neil Reid
Brightwell-Hauiti said whānau of previous landowners around Tokomaru Bay – including those of what is now Hatea-a-Rangi Memorial Park – had the “ultimate goal” of gaining “our land back”.
“The issue that stands today is that we continue to be alienated from our land,” she said.
“The injustices of the past have not been resolved.”
Brightwell-Hauiti also said a potential legal battle loomed.
Former All Black Andy Jefferd is heavily involved in a campaign to save the historic Tokomaru Bay Wharf. Photo / Neil Reid
“It is something we will continue [to fight],” Brightwell-Hauiti said.
“We have a strong whānau group so we will continue to support one another. If they come back [regarding co-governance of the rugby field] and we are not happy with it, we will probably reconvene, share our thoughts, and I think it will be something we would continue to challenge until we are happy with the resolution.
“There is no resolution, as far as we are concerned.”
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 30 years of newsroom experience, including 24 years of covering rugby on the East Coast.
