from the Radio NZ website
The Kāpiti Coast District Council has voted to restore protections to a Māori burial ground after more than fifty years of challenges by iwi.
Local iwi Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai welcomed the decision which adds Kārewarewa urupā in the Waikanae Beach area to the District Plan as a site of significance to Māori.
Kārewarewa urupā is associated with the 1839 Battle of Kūititanga, many of those who died in the battle were buried at the urupā, and the site has been used as an urupā since the mid-19th century.
See earlier posts about this area. It’s good news, not just for the fact that burial grounds or cemeteries should not be built on, but preserves it as a patch of open ground free of ‘cheap and affordable’ houses. —Eds