A Lower Hutt widow has been left distraught after her husband's body was taken from her home at the weekend by his whānau, who took it to Northland for burial.
Tommy Murray's grieving widow Sara described how a number of her husband's whānau visited the house on Sunday night, before taking his coffin away in a van.
"I was on the phone to the police screaming for them to come. And they've taken my husband out without his lid, they didn't even put the lid on the coffin."
She said they nearly tipped her husband's body out of the casket as they rushed to leave amid protests from her daughters and other family members.
Tommy's death was sudden and he didn't leave a will.
"He didn't know where he wanted to go and said, 'I want to stay with you, I want to stay with you so cremate me' and that's all I was doing, honouring my husband's wishes," said Sara.
But this week he was buried in Northland's Whangape, where he is from.
The Northland whānau didn't want to be interviewed, but it's understood that they took the body or tūpāpaku, in order for it to be buried in accordance with tikanga.
Former MP Shane Jones, who is well versed in tikanga Māori, said it was a complex situation.
"Now in the event that this man who has died has children who want him to be taken back to his ancestral urupā, where he hails from, then that is very consistent with tikanga Māori."
His wife Sara said that's not what he wanted.
"He didn't know where he belonged. His Far North family ostracised him when we lived up there and made him feel unwelcome, he didn't feel like he belonged up there."
Police told 1News they've spoken with both sides, but were unable to reach an agreement. After seeking advice, they said they were not able to retrieve Tommy's body.
"If there's one lesson here, it's that if you are coming together and your partner is Māori and you are not Māori, talk about these things before the grim reaper arrives," said Shane Jones.
Disputes over dead bodies are not unusual in te ao Māori. In 1989 the body of comedian Billy t James was taken from his family home to lie at Tūrangawaewae Marae in Waikato, causing his planned funeral in Auckland to be cancelled.
And in 2007 the body of James Takamore was taken from a funeral parlour in Christchurch to his ancestral home in the Bay of Plenty, starting a dispute that went to the supreme court.
There was eventually a ruling in favour of his wife, but police refused to exhume Takamore. Mediation led to a settlement in 2015, and his body remains with his Tūhoe people.
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