Christchurch emerges as home for controversial Erebus memorial despite wishes of most families

Friday, 13 December 2024

Wreckage from the crashed Air New Zealand DC10 on the slopes of Mt Erebus.

Christchurch’s mayor has offered the city as a home for the controversial national Erebus memorial.

Seven years after then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised a memorial for families of the 257 victims of the Air New Zealand DC10 that crashed in Antarctica in November 1979, the southern city is now emerging as a possible location.

However, most family members still want the memorial built in Auckland.

The memorial was always intended to be in Auckland due to the large number of passengers coming from the city and the upper North Island, Flight TE901 leaving from there, and the ease of access to a memorial for overseas victims’ families.

However, bitter opposition to the memorial being placed in Parnell’s Dove-Myer Robinson Park led to an occupation of the proposed site by protesters.

Eventually, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH), which is overseeing the beleaguered project, abandoned the site last year due to concerns about the land’s stability.

The ministry went back to the drawing board and came up with 37 possible sites in Auckland.

This was whittled down to three, along with a further possibility - putting the memorial at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington, where MCH oversaw the land and could progress the memorial more quickly.

Eventually, the ministry said the choice of site would be between Pukeahu, and next to the Michael Joseph Savage memorial at Auckland’s Bastion Point/Takaparawhau.

However, strong opposition to Pukeahu as a home for the memorial emerged, including from the RSA.

Difficulties getting consensus among Bastion Point landowner Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei meant few guarantees could be given about a memorial there, despite it being the most popular location with victims’ families, and most suitable site according to an independent assessment.

Protesters' tents in Dove-Myer Robinson Park, Parnell, Auckland, where opponents to the National Erebus Memorial occupied the proposed site, preventing construction beginning.

Facing a stalemate after seven years, MCH last month surveyed Erebus families asking if they wanted the memorial in Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch - leading many to suggest the project was back to square one, or worse.

Now, Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger has formally invited MCH to consider putting the memorial in his city, following discussions with the ministry last week.

“We believe Christchurch is uniquely positioned to honour the memory of those lost in the tragic Mt Erebus disaster, offering a setting that is deeply meaningful.”

Mauger pointed to Christchurch being the gateway to Antarctica since Robert Falcon Scott’s expeditions; the International Antarctic Centre being there; and the doomed flight being due to return to refuel and disembark 53 passengers in Christchurch, before continuing to Auckland.

Mauger said Christchurch was “a natural and symbolic home for the memorial”.

“I am confident this memorial will be cherished and supported by our citizens.”

The ministry’s chief executive, Leauanae Laulu Mac Leauanae, said Christchurch’s offer was “truly heartwarming”, and the ministry and Christchurch City Council would now work closely together to identify possible sites.

Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger, who has offered his city as home for the controversial Erebus memorial.

However, Leauanae’s statement did not mention the clear majority of Erebus family members still want the memorial in Auckland.

At a meeting between MCH and family members on Thursday night, results were released of its survey asking victims’ relatives where they wanted the memorial.

Auckland was the favoured location by a significant majority, followed by Christchurch, with Wellington a distant third.

Ministry for Culture and Heritage chief executive Leauanae Laulu Mac Leauanae.

It now appears MCH is stepping back from promoting Pukeahu as a home for the memorial, given opposition from the RSA and family members.

Leauanae also failed to mention in a press release on Friday that Bastion Point remained an option for the memorial, leaving some family members confused as to where the ministry would now put its energies.

One family member spoken to by The Post said Auckland was always the proposed location, for very good reasons, and that rationale had not changed.

An artist’s impression of the National Erebus Memorial as it would have been at Dove-Myer Robinson Park in Parnell, Auckland.

But after seven years of frustration and holdups, they felt some people were now prepared to compromise, for the sake of getting something, anywhere.

They also pointed to the fact no site in Christchurch had been identified, so the process was effectively no further ahead than it was seven years ago.

Another family member said they would rather have no memorial than one in Christchurch, which had no relevance to what happened on Mt Erebus.

They said it was retraumatising that remembering the country’s worst peacetime disaster had now become a bureaucratic headache.

They likened the latest suggestion to a lost child, whose parents the authorities knew lived in Auckland, but they were now going to place in Christchurch.

“It beggars belief, really.”

They appreciated MCH’s efforts to get a memorial built, and the difficulties it had faced.

“But don’t go and get it wrong. Get it right.”