April 07, 2013
Ngāti Pukenga signs treaty deed
Hundreds of members of Ngāti Pukenga gathered at Te Whetu ō te Rangi Mārae at Welcome Bay yesterday to sign a deed of settlement for its historic treaty claims.
The package which includes $5 million in commercial redress and the return of culturally significant properties.
Claims committee chair Rehua Smallman says even though the settlement is relatively small, iwi members voted overwhelmingly to accept so they could move on and create a better future for their mokopuna.
He says as well as having its land confiscated in the 1860s, Ngāti Pukenga was shut out of the Native Land court process in the 1880s when neighbouring Tauranga Moana iwi got some of their land back.
The settlement is structured to acknowledge the four kainga where the iwi ended up after the land wars, in Welcome Bay, Maketu, Manaia on the Coromandel Peninsula and Whangarei.
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