A Northland Maori group has erected pou, or boundary markers, on disputed beachfront land at Matapouri.
The group is taking action in the High Court against the Department of Conservation, the Department of Land and Survey Information and the Attorney-General in a bid to have the land designated a reserve.
Te Whanau o Rangi Whakaahu say they sold the Otito Block to the Government in 1970 as a scenic reserve in the belief that reserve status would safeguard it for all time.
However, they say part of the land was wrongly included in a freehold title by private survey in 1999.
The hapu says the five manuka posts it has erected on the land are to make a statement, and watch over wahi tapu.
A condition of sale was that a neighbour who had built a house on the land, would get a lifetime lease and the house would be removed when she died.
But the then-Lands Department never got around to drawing up a tenancy agreement.
The neighbour's descendants, the Ringer family, had the block re-surveyed in 1999 and that survey set the boundary well north of where the hapu says it is.
Te Whanau o Rangi Whakaahu lodged affidavits in the High Court in Whangarei on Thursday asking for the land to be returned to the Crown. The suit is backed by The Friends of Matapouri.
However, the Ringer family say they have clear legal title, confirmed by the Surveyor General - after a survey that DoC agreed to abide by.
The family says it is clear Maori have strong feelings on the issue, as do they, however the matter is before the court, and they won't do anything that might inflame feelings or imply disrespect for the judicial process.
