‘Lifetime Of Hurt’: Memorial Plans For Unmarked Graves Gets Underway

Monday, 10 February 2025, 9:38 pm
Article: Torika Tokalau - Local Democracy Reporter

Plans to build a memorial for the unmarked graves at the Pukekohe Cemetery has begun with a series of whānau engagements underway.

The unmarked graves, many of them Māori babies, has long been a source of pain to many in the rural south Auckland community.

Five public engagements, starting with the whānau of those resting at the unmarked graves, have been planned in February, seeking views on the memorial.

The decision to build a memorial came in the wake of the publication of Dr Robert Bartholomew’s 2020 book No Māori Allowed, which detailed historic racism in Pukekohe, and the subsequent Reikura Kahi documentary of the same name.

In the documentary, it revealed that Māori were barred from public toilets, segregated at the cinema and swimming baths, forced to stand for white bus passengers and barred from schools from 1920 until the early 1960s.

Children, who died from measles, diphtheria, whooping cough and tuberculosis, were buried in unmarked graves.

The first public engagement on the memorial got underway last Friday at the Franklin Local Board.

Pukekohe Cemetery Committee chair Makere Rika-Heke said they were hoping to engage with everybody that had an interest in the memorial, and there would be "challenging and difficult discussions".

"[We're] canvassing wide and far, and being inclusive, opening up discussions and creating space so people, whatever their opinions, however they express themselves, we want them to come and engage and tell their stories," Rika-Heke said.

"There will be a lot of drop outs from this, where a lot of things will come to the floor.

"But I think we are matured enough now to have challenging and difficult discussions, without it descending into something that's a mess."

Many of the graves are the resting place of people with family who are with us today, Rika-Heke said.

"They have endured a lifetime of hurt, knowing whānau rest unrecognised. That is a situation that must be rectified and acknowledged.”

The Pukekohe Cemetery Committee was set up by the Franklin Local Board and Ngā Hau e Whā Marae representatives to oversee the build of a memorial.

They had their first meeting of the year on February 4, establishing commitment to their focus.

"It's not going to be a fast endeavour, we know that. We want to take our time in re-establishing engaging and having conversations.

"It takes time to establish rapport, takes time to do this kaupapa justice and honour those whose voices have so far been muted."

They were working to follow a structured process, and ensure steps were taken in measured ways, advancing in the right way, in checking in with multiple sets of hapori and whānau, she said.

"We're tracking really well, and that was really pleasing to see see.

"It was great to know that we are adhering to our established time lines, but also delivering where we can, to people's expectations."

An allocation of $200,000 has been budgeted for engagement, design, engineering and consenting (stage 1), and $500,000 for construction (stage 2).

Rika-Heke said the committee was trying to get things established, honouring those that should be at rest.

"And to find a way forward for Pukokehe as a hub for many communities."

A lot of work was still to be done, and they were aware of the significance of the project to iwi mana whenua, and to other communities who have whānau resting at the unmarked graves, she said.

Whanau engagement
February 15, 10am-12noon, Ngaau Hau E Wha Marae o Pukekohe
February 22, 10am-12noon and February 26, 6pm, online (email: lynn.birch@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz)
February 27, 6-8pm, Franklin room - Franklin, The Centre

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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