Excluding gay and de facto partners from the annual mutton bird harvest could breach human rights law, says the Ministry of Justice.
Mutton birds, also called sooty shearwaters but known by Maori as "titi", are seabirds considered a great delicacy by Maori.
The yearly harvest of juveniles is a prizedtradition and one of the few culls of native species allowed.
The right to go "birding" each year between April and May on the group of small islands off Stewart Island is jealously guarded by the Rakiura titi committee, Ngai Tahu descendants of the original owners of Stewart Island who run the harvest.
Under 1978 regulations, "birders" are restricted to Rakiura Maori, their spouses, widows or widowers.
But those terms are too narrow to pass muster with the Ministry of Justice, whose "legal recognition project" team spotted the potential discriminatory criteria during a trawl through 1978 regulations governing the hunt.
Those regulations "unjustifiably discriminate against certain persons on the basis of their marital status and possibly their sexual orientation", says the ministry. They could be in breach of the Human Rights Act and the Bill of Rights Act.
Southland Department of Conservation boss Kevin O'Connor said the hunt committee must decide on the language to be used. DoC has two proposals for new wording, including replacing references to "marriage", "widow" and "widower" with a more general term.
