Burial of James Takamore
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The burial of James Takamore was a family conflict and consequent legal precedent in New Zealand, regarding the right to decide where a body should be buried. Legal judgment reflected tension between Māori custom (tikanga) and English-based common law.
James Takamore was born into the Whakatōhea and Ngāi Tūhoe tribes in the Bay of Plenty but lived in Christchurch, returning to the North Island only twice in 20 years and expressing to third parties his identification as a "South Island Māori".[1] After his death in 2007, a dispute arose whether he should be buried in Christchurch, as he and his wife intended, or in the traditional burial ground (urupa) of his family in Kutarere.
Ultimately the Supreme Court of New Zealand upheld the common law principle that the executor of a deceased person's will has both the right and the duty to dispose of the deceased. The court gave Takamore's wife permission to exhume his body, and return him to Christchurch, but Tūhoe members refused and police would not use force to carry through with the disinterment.[2] In 2015 the conflict was resolved after court mediation in Christchurch and Takamore's body remained in the Bay of Plenty, though the details of the settlement have not been made public.[3][2]