Tauranga iwi disturbed by 'horrific', racist submissions opposing land return

While all the noise over whenua has been at Ihumātao lately, another land issue has been brewing in Tauranga.

It involves a small and very valuable block close to the city centre and whether it should be returned to local iwi Ngāti Tapu and Ngāi Tamarāwaho, under the Otamataha Trust.

The proposal to give back the property on 11 Mission Street caused a storm of submissions against the transfer to the Otamataha Trust.

“Some of the submissions, the responses, were just horrific,” Tauranga resident Ria Hall told Marae.

“[They were] shocking to read, alarming to read.”

Ms Hall says some of the submissions labelled Māori as being burglars, rapists and murders - stereotypes she says are very hurtful.

Those who oppose the returning of the land say it was bought in the 1830s and shouldn’t be gifted back to the Trust.

Marae’s Hikurangi Jackson went to Tauranga to investigate why there’s so much opposition to returning the land to local iwi.

Watch the full story above.