Christopher Luxon’s delegation bypasses highway protest by flying into Urewera on a helicopter

Christopher Luxon’s first visit to Tūhoe as Prime Minister has been met with protest action.

The PM and government officials were in the eastern Bay of Plenty on Saturday to look at Tūhoe iwi authority, Te Uru Taumatua (TUT) and its work in Te Urewera. The visit included a community leaders’ breakfast at TUT in Tāneatua.

One group including Tame Iti is understood to have protested outside the TUT entrance, while a second group at Ohinenaenae was attempting to stop the delegation going up the Whakatāne River by jet boat to Te Urewera.

The Ohinenaenae group, comprising about 20 to 30 people including kaumātua and kuia, said it was protesting “about the same things as everyone else”; the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori language and “a bit of Te Uru Taumatua not serving its people in the correct way, as per the High Court case” led by the late Paki Nikora and others.

“A police truck came, parked about 200 metres away, then went away again,” a spokesperson for the group said.

Iti was said to be protesting about issues including the Treaty, Gaza and declonising the Pacific.

The PM’s delegation is understood to have bypassed the groups and gone to Te Urewera by helicopter.