Dame Claudia Orange blasted for Waitangi Day cultural insensitivity.

Iwi leader threatens Police involvement

Ngapuhi leader David Rankin has stated he will call the Police if necessary over sacred artefacts which he lent to the new Waitangi Museum, but which he claims have been treated “like items at a garage sale.”

The items – including the axe owned by his ancestor Hone Heke, and a god-stick owned by Heke’s tohunga, Papahurihia – were handed over to Claudia Orange, who was travelling around the country last year looking for items to be put on display.

“Claudia has acted appallingly,” says Mr Rankin. “It’s as though she has zero cultural understanding of tikanga, and displays the sort of snatch-and-grab mentality which we thought had disappeared at the end of the colonial era.”

He points out that the loan of these highly sacred taonga was never acknowledged, that he was given no information about their curation or safety, and there is no recognition of how important these taonga are to Ngapuhi.

“I have asked for these details but have been met with silence,” says Mr Rankin. “If the items in question are not safely returned to me by the end of this week, I will be referring this matter to the Police as it meets the legal definition of theft.”

"I lent these taonga hoping for a long relationship with the Museum," says Mr Rankin, "but I have been left feeling like for them, this was just a one-night stand."

Mr Rankin has already alerted the Waitangi Museum's co-ordinator, Kate Martin, and has warned that this matter will sour relations between the museum and all of Ngapuhi.

ENDS

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