A step toward World Heritage Status for Kerikeri Basin

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Information release
22 June 2007

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is thrilled that the Kororipo-Kerikeri Basin - which includes the Kerikeri Mission House and the Stone Store - is on the New Zealand Tentative List for consideration as a World Heritage site.

Inclusion on the Tentative List is an important first step towards the historic area gaining World Heritage status.

"The Kororipo-Kerikeri Heritage Basin is a jewel of a heritage site, where many strands of our early history come together," says the Chair of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Board, Dame Anne Salmond.

As well as containing New Zealand's oldest standing building, the Kerikeri Mission House (1821-22) and our oldest stone building, the Stone Store (1836), the Kororipo-Kerikeri Basin is situated in the shadow of Kororipo Pa - once the fighting stronghold of Ngapuhi Chief, Hongi Hika, the early 19th Century Maori village and 'Hongi's Point' with its wahi tapu.

"From 1819, when Hongi Hika invited the Church Mission Society missionaries to settle here, this place became a microcosm of two worlds - a small piece of Georgian England set down in a Maori community.

The Trust has been long convinced that the Basin is a potential World Heritage Site, and we've taken care to manage and preserve the Kerikeri Mission House and Stone Store to international conservation standards," says Dame Anne.

This has included advocacy for protecting the buildings from flooding, a risk whose dangers have been dramatically demonstrated in recent months; as well as damage from heavy road traffic.

Historian Judith Binney has described the Kororipo-Kerikeri Basin as "culturally and historically one of the most important sites in Aotearoa New Zealand" and "probably the most significant visual testimony that we have to the meeting of two worlds."

The encounters that took place here laid the foundation for the agreement that would later be signed at Waitangi and elsewhere, and for the development of New Zealand as a bicultural nation and modern state.

"One could argue that the birth of our nation (or perhaps its conception) took place in the Kororipo-Kerikeri Basin, rather than at Waitangi, though of course both places are highly significant," says Dame Anne.

The Tentative List acts as an inventory of the places that New Zealand might submit to the Committee for consideration in the next 5-10 years, and a final decision on whether or not the Kororipo-Kerikeri Basin is accepted as a World Heritage site could be some years away.

If the Kororipo-Kerikeri Basin is selected for the next step in this process, a detailed formal nomination will be prepared with assistance from the World Heritage Centre, which would then be reviewed by two Advisory Bodies mandated by the World Heritage Convention.

Once this process is completed, it is up to the World Heritage Committee to make the final decision on its inscription at one of its annual meetings - or alternatively defer its decision and request further information.

"It's a very robust and rigorous process as you would expect. We're very keen to get it under way," says Dame Anne.

"In the meantime, we're looking forward to further developments in the Kororipo-Kerikeri Basin - the completion of the Heritage Bypass that will take traffic out of the Basin, and the removal of the Kerikeri River Bridge that acts as a dam when the river floods, pushing the flood water towards the buildings.

We are also very eager to ensure that the site is interpreted and cared for in a way that meets the expectations of New Zealanders, and international standards. Without these developments, World Heritage status - with its benefits for tourism in Northland - is very unlikely,"she added.

For further information on this please contact:

Pete Kerr
Marketing and Media
NZ Historic Places Trust
Ph: 027 683 9065