November 19, 2012
Ngāti Mahuhiri contemplates island return
The chief negotiator for Ngāti Manuhiri says gifting Hauturu-Little Barrier back to the nation fits with the hapū's tikanga.
As part of its historic Treaty settlement, the Tai Tokerau hapū will get back for a week the island it was forced off in 1896.
It will retain a 1.2 hectare block and a co-governance role with the Department of Conservation.
Mooks Hoeneck says there is historical precedent.
"You know that same spirit was epitomised by our tupuna Rahui who gifted some of her land around Pakiri to tauiwi for saving some of our people in the water and that's a tikanga we have kept in touch with. Some may see it as tokenism that we gifted it back to the rest of New Zealand after only owning it a week but collectively as a tribe we felt it was the right thing to do and what our tupuna would have wished," he says.
Copyright © 2013, Uma Broadcasting Ltd