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Regional | Environment

Native Affairs - The River

Dead fish and eels have surfaced in the Ōruarangi Stream along with purple birds and purple-fleshed seafood.

The cause - a chemical spill from a nearby company which saw a thousand litres of purple dye poured into an iwi's ancestral awa.

The iwi that's occupied the Ihumātao site for the past 800 years says the spill is the latest added insult to injury for a people who's papakāinga is already under siege thanks to the industrial developments happening on their back door step.

Iulia Leilua has their story.