Some hapu around the Bay of Islands are determined to pursue an independent settlement rather than join in the Maranga Mai process now entered into by rival Ngapuhi groups Tuhoronuku and Te Kotahitanga.
Those groups have submitted names to the Office of Treaty Settlements of people to serve on a transition group setting up a post-Tuhoronuku negotiating structure, which will have more input from hapu.
But Arapeta Hamilton from Ngati Manu says his hapu and others in the Te Kahui Kawenata collective – Ngati Kuta, Patukeha, and Rahiri – want no part of it.
He says the crown wants to throw a horse blanket over the 170 hapu of Ngapuhi.
"It’s taken us 170-something years to get to this stage and we will wait another 170-something years if needs be. We are not going to chase the dollar. We will maintain out own rangatiratanga full stop," Mr Hamilton says.
He says despite being coastal people, the four Pewhairangi hapu have seen no benefit from the Maori fisheries settlement, so they have no faith in blanket settlements.
