May 26, 2016
Settlement confirms links to land
Relief and sadness yesterday as progress was made on a number of treaty settlement bills.
There were first readings of bills covering claims to the Whanganui River and for Tauranga Moana iwi Ngai Te Rangi and Nga Potiki.
Ngai Te Rangi chair Charlie Tawhiao says while it's good to be on the home straight, there was also sombre moments as people reflected on the cost of colonisation to the iwi.
He says while commercial redress willl help create an economic base, what's more important is the cultural redress inclucing acknowledgement of the iwi's links to sites in the rohe.
"The harbour for us is the water in the harbour and all the waters flowing into it so streams and those kinds of sites are for us an acknowledgement not just of our relationship but with the harbour but the land as well. We see ourselves as connected from land to sea, from sea to land," Mr Tawhiao says.
There was the second reading of a settlement bill for Ngati Hineuru, which lost its land along the Napier Taupo Road after Crown attacks in 1866, and there was also the initialing of a settlement for claims of clusters of hapu around Wairoa.
FULL INTERVIEW: CHARLIE TAWHIAO
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