There must be peace at Ihumātao before it has a future.

That's the message from mana whenua advocate Pita Turei - defending the lack of housing development on the land.

It's eight months since the Government bought Ihumātao from Fletcher Building, in a nearly $30 million deal.

The funding was granted under agreement some land will be developed in collaboration with iwi, but there has been no progress so far on that front. 

But Turei told Heather du Plessis-Allan the fight to protect the land has taken a big toll on whanau.

"There are those descendants of those people of those lands who need to work out how to come together to progress."

LISTEN ABOVE