From The Press:

Racist graffiti harms early Maori rock art
09 December 2006

Racist insults spray-painted on a Maori rock art site could destroy the pre-European drawings.

The graffiti, which covers three sites in and near the Raincliff Historic Reserve in South Canterbury, reads, “nigger0″, “coons” and “welcome to Bro Town”. The limestone rock faces are so fragile and porous that some areas could suffer permanent damage.

Conservation workers have had to seek clean-up advice from experts in Australia and New Zealand.

Ian Hill, a technical support officer for historic heritage at the Conservation Department, said the clean-up would take at least two days. “We’ll have to use a toothbrush on the finer areas. We were very annoyed, it’s difficult to describe how we felt when we came across it. It’s just quite sad that people haven’t got better things to do with their time.”

Removing the spray paint with cleaning agents and brushes would also damage the lichen growing on the limestone, disturbing the sites’ natural values, he said.

Canterbury-Aoraki Conservation Board chairman Alan Jolliffe said the vandalism had caused several unhappy faces.

“This art is very tangible evidence of early occupation of this country and can tell us stories about what people were seeing, doing and observing when it went up.

“It is spray paint on limestone and extremely difficult to remove because it is a porous stone.”

The rock art depicts fish and human figures