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Waikato-Tainui negotiator Tukoroirangi Morgan says there are deep historical links between the iwi and Ngati Whatua Orakei which will be respected during the Kingitanga claim over greater Auckland.
The tribe is keen to start direct negotiations on the claim, which was originally lodged by the Huakina Trust in 1987.
Mr Morgan says many Orakei whanau are linked to Tainui by blood, and there has also been a lot of support over the years.
This includes the period during World War One when Tainui men including his own grandfather refused to be conscripted to fight for an empire that confiscated 1.3 million acres of Waikato-Tainui land.
"So when the young men were taken from Tainui and put in prison at Narrow Neck, my grandmother and many of the kuia went to the relations in Orakei, cooked their kai there, went over the boat to the other side at Narrow Neck in Takapuna and threw the kai over the wall because all they were being fed was bread and water," Mr Morgan says.
Ngati Whatua o Orakei deputy chair Ngarimu Blair says the hapu acknowledges Tainui and the Kingitanga has interests in parts of wider Auckland.
He says the hapu, which has maintained ahi kaa roa and lived in central Auckland for centuries, gifted land to Tainui within Tamaki in the 1830s.
He says Orakei has been accommodating and flexible in achieving a settlement for the region, but it needs to ensure new settlements don’t undermine the settlements of others.
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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