Northcote manawhenua 'repo' land of beleaguered Hato Pētera College

Tuesday, 21 August 2018

A group representing two Māori families has erected flags and signage on College Rd in Northcote as they claim they want to repossess the land Hato Petera College is on.

As the future of Auckland's beleaguered Hato Pētera College hangs in the balance, the manawhenua of Northcote have repossessed part of the land the school sits on.

The Kotahitanga Movement Aotearoa are flying the Tino Rangatiratanga and United Tribes of New Zealand flag and have erected 'Repo' signage in the name of the Peters and Turoa families of Ngāti Paoa.

'There is no education for Māori taking place on the land at all, so the deal and agreement is now broken and now we simply want our land back,' leader Reti Hohaia Netana Boynton posted on social media.

The agreement or deal in question was that of a deed of grant from 1850, which stated the land must be used for educational purposes.

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The Te Kotahitanga Movement Aotearoa claim they have repossessed the land as a 1850 deed of grant has been broken, with no education of Māori currently taking place.

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Lyndsay Freer, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Auckland, told Stuff in April:

'The land was gifted to us for the purposes of education and we intend to honour that condition.'

Although aware of the group's protest action, Freer said the diocese could not comment until the future of Hato Pētera was known, which she expected the minister of education would announce very soon.

Hato Pētera College's commissioner Lex Hamill says the school's five students have all been accommodated in other schools.

'We're still waiting for the Ministry of Education on the future of the school. Until that is actioned, we feel it is for the minister, not for us, to make any comment.'

Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced in June his interim decision to cancel the Māori school's integration agreement following a formal consultation in April.

The 28-day limit for Hato Pētera's commissioner Lex Hamill to review this interim decision came and went in July.

In this time, the school's five students had all been 'accommodated' in other schools, Hamill said.

'Part of that is parents who wanted to support the school but had concerns should the school close their children would have to scramble to find another school.'

Hamill told Stuff he was also aware of the group's occupation, but said his powers as commissioner did not extend to the land, only to the management of the property and overseeing the education of the students.

With the Kotahitanga Movement Aotearoa occupying land on the opposite side of College Rd, where Te Kamaka Marae and the boarded up hostel were located, he said the group were on the church's land, rather than that of the school itself.

'Their presence on the land is something that has been referred to the Catholic Church.'

Boynton declined to comment.