November 09, 2015
Ngai Tai inks settlement deed
Ngai Tai ki Tamaki has become the latest Auckland iwi to settle its historic treaty claims.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Christopher Finlayson and iwi negotiators signed the deed of settlement at Umupuia Marae on Saturday.
They recalled the question asked by former crown negotiator Sir Douglas Graham when he arrived at Umupia six years ago to talk about settling Ngai Tai ki Tamaki’s historic claims: ‘"How ow did the crown miss this bit?"
The marae is set on a spectacular beachfront looking out at Waiheke and the other islands of Tikapa Moana.
It was all the tribe had left after sales to missionaries, broken promises, confiscation in the 1860s and the depredations of the Native Land Court.
The Treaty Minister, Chris Finlayson, acknowledged the damage that did to the tribe’s structure, forcing families to move elsewhere to find work so their descendants became alienated not just from the land but from their tribal identity.
The settlement marks the start of a new relationship between the Crown and Ngai Tai.
It comes with almost $13 million in commercial redress, including schools sites at Clevedon and Maraetai Beach which will be leased back to the crown.
There are also 16 sites that come back to the iwi as cultural redress, including reserves on Motutapu, Motukaraka and Waihere islands, part of the Hunua Falls Scenic Reserve, reserves on Te Naupata-Musick Point, and a property on Maungarei- Mount Wellington.
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