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An Eastern Bay of Plenty iwi says the Crown's settlement with Ngāi Tūhoe will strip them of the last of their land.
Te Upokorehe Treaty Claims Trust will lead a hikoi at 1pm today across the Waioweka Bridge at Opotiki to protest the settlement, which is likely to be signed off early next month.
Trust Secretary Kahukore Baker says the settlement throws the Tūhoe blanket over the whole Upokorehe rohe, forcing a new tribal identity on the people.
"We have very close whānau relationships with all iwi around the rohe but our point is we are Upokorehe, we have our own tikanga, our own mana, our own Upokorehetanga, and for anyone to come in and claim not just the whenua, not just customary rights that have never been given but to claim the people, that is just absolutely unacceptable to Upokorehe," she says.
Ms Baker says the Crown is so keen to settle with Tuhoe it is refusing to listen to Upokorehe.
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