ancestral land

 

PHOTO: TONY WALL The family farm at Pipiwai that Peihopa was evicted from.

People are coming back to their family land as the cost of living in big cities becomes impossible. But it can end in disaster. Tony Wall and Florence Kerr report for ‘No place to live/Kāore te kāinga, kāore te ora’, a Stuff investigation into a housing crisis in the Far North.

“This is my world, it’s all I’ve got,” says 78-year-old Moses Peihopa, surveying the modest motel room in Kaikohe that is his temporary home.

“All the rest of my gear is back home on the farm – and they’ve gone and thrown it all in the rubbish bin.”

Peihopa is not in good health. He needs a walking frame to get around and is receiving chemotherapy for myeloma.

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