The BFD | An Approved Mass Gathering at Level 4 Lockdown

Bernie McIntyre

On 28 March 2020 we heard that there was going to be a Ngati Manu burial at Karetu, Te Tai Tokerau, at 11am Sunday 29 March. I’m a New Zealander and also Ngati Manu. I and many others disagreed with the gathering as it was NOT an essential service and a clear breach of Covid-19 Level 4 restrictions.

On Sunday morning at 5:41 I contacted the Ministry of Health to clarify funerals as there was activity at the cemetery preparing for the burial and advised that there could be a hundred or more people attending. The Ministry advised that funerals did not comply with Level 4 restrictions as one could only leave the property for essential services: “No Funerals” allowed.

At 6:49am I contacted the Police on the 105 number to report the pending gathering at the cemetery, that vehicles were starting to arrive at the cemetery and that grave digging had been taking place since 5:30am. I was kept on the line until local Police were contacted so they could check it out. I did not see any Police come to Karetu.

At 12:15pm, from my property, I videoed a procession of cars going to the cemetery and at the cemetery. I estimated more than fifty people gathered and it could easily have been a hundred people or more. I posted the videos on a local Facebook Group page to let people in our area know that a serious breach of COVID-19 Level 4 restrictions had occurred. The video post went viral and was taken down within about 15 minutes.

The gathering contradicted the televised Police campaign (to report breaches of L4 rules), knowing they had already approved a gathering, then telling the public one thing but knowing the opposite was occurring.

Did the New Zealand Police have special powers to approve a mass gathering and if so were any of the Police Officers Ngati Manu?

I subsequently emailed the AM Show thinking they would ask the hard questions but there was no response and I don’t know why. I forwarded the same email to Simon Bridges but received no response there so forwarded it to Matt King. His office responded with a link to report the matter to the Police.

I then re-drafted my email, carbon-copied to the Minister of Health David Clark, Minister of Police Stuart Nash, ACT Party, Green Party and Stuff.co.nz. I received an email from a Danielle Clent, a journalist from Stuff, requiring more information. It was a couple of days before I got back to her. In an email she replied, “I contacted police about it and they said officers checked it out and the group was abiding by Level 4 restrictions”. I sent the videos etc to her mobile phone but I never heard from her again.

Here’s the thing. The last email I sent was at the same time it was revealed that the Health Minister David Clark had breached the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and taken his family for a twenty kilometre ride. But on the same weekend Ngati Manu organised and then carried out a mass gathering at Karetu.

In previous emails I expressed concerns as to the involvement of the Ngati Manu Ministers of Parliament, being the Associate Minister for Maori Health Peeni Henare, Deputy Leader Kelvin Davis, Nanaia Mahuta and Willow Jean Prime.

Did they attempt to prevent this gathering from happening or did they influence the gathering? If they did not authorise it, was it a case of a bit of wilful blindness and approval from the Police?

And to think Peeni Henare was attempting to replicate the ignorance of Ngati Hine when his grandmother Tapeka Henare’s FB post read:

“Just over a hundred years ago our tupuna Hera Henare (nee Subritzky) passed from the flu during the influenza epidemic while working as a nurse in Takapuna, Auckland. Her tupapaku was brought home on the train to Motatau. With the instruction that her casket was not to be opened. Unfortunately our people did not adhere to these ture and in their grief they opened her casket. This began the influenza epidemic within Ngati Hine and indeed Te Tai Tokerau. To this day you can still see the many unmarked graves and plots around many kainga and urupa in Ngati Hine. Nanny Hera was the first person interred at our wahi tapu aptly named Takapuna in Motatau.To my many whanaunga of Ngati Hine we needn’t look too far to ensure our survival. We have learnt from such an event and must try our hardest to not repeat history”.

How ironic.

How a group within New Zealand society could even consider exercising a perceived cultural right, clearly breaching COVID-19 Level 4 restrictions, when the virus could kill us all, is incomprehensible. That their brazen and arrogant actions appear to have been checked and approved by the police is inconceivable.

Questions should be asked of these Ministers to explain how the gathering could possibly have complied with level 4 restrictions. I would have thought that the National Party, being the opposition party, would want to ask these kinds of questions in the House; after all, they all know of this gathering. But obviously both the opposition politicians and MSM are not interested. There is no need for transparency and accountability, it seems.

What do you make of this?