November 20, 2016
Urbans set agenda for fish-funded education trust
Urban Maori organisations have met to discuss appointments and goals for Te Putea Whakatupu, the trust that is supposed to allow Maori who are disconnected from their iwi to share in the Maori fisheries settlement.
The National Urban Maori Authority backed by Waipareira and Manukau Urban Maori Authority went to the High Court this year to challenge the way the trust deed was being interpreted by the iwi-dominated trust.
NUMA chief executive Lance Norman says the court backed their view, and good faith negotiations are now going on with the Maori fisheries settlement trust Te Ohu Kaimoana about how Te Putea Whakatupu can be reconstituted.
"All directors now have to have connectivity to urban Maori and have advocated for urban Maori in some capacity, be it through Nga Whare Waatea or Hoani Waititi or Waipareira or Maori Women's Welfare or other urban Maori movements," he says.
Because of the ongoing dispute the trust’s capital has grown to $25 million, and the income from this can go to support a range of education initiatives from tertiary scholarships to numeracy or literacy programmes.
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