The Cook Islands Government is being told it should maintain an environmentally threatened cemetery on the Rarotonga coast.
Cate Walker and Paul Morrissey beside the grave of Cate's late mother Gloria Walker. Cate has repainted and refreshed her mother's grave since it was left abandoned. Photo: RNZI/Cook Islands News
At least nine graves or headstones have been washed away by coastal erosion over many years.
The cemetery is called the Brychyard after medical fraudster, Milan Brych, who moved his practice to Rarotonga when he was stopped from using his remedies in New Zealand.
Australian Cate Walker's mother was one of Mr Brych's patients and is buried in the cemetery after dying on Rarotonga in 1978.
Cate Walker regularly visits the Brychyard and says the most threatened graves should be moved while there are plans to build a rock wall to combat the storm surges.
"That would be the minimal thing that needs to done, but what also needs to be done is that the Cook Islands Government needs to accept and maintain this cemetery, this foreigners' cemetery, where tourists and foreigners are buried, and maintain it to an adequate level."
Cate Walker says her mother's grave is not amongst those currently threatened.
There has been little action to save the graves, mostly of foreigners, many of whom died after unsuccessfully seeking treatment from the disgraced cancer therapist, Milan Brych.
The secretary of internal affairs, Bredina Drollet, says it is complicated matter but she will take it to Government for consideration.
"There is some public responsibility that the Government should look at how they may address the erosion along the beach front where the Brychyard is located."
Bredina Drollet says moving the cemetery away from the coast would be sensitive given the way land is owned in the Cook Islands.
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