Unfinished business casts shadow over Taranaki celebration

Three Taranaki iwi are celebrating the passing of their treaty settlement bills today

After almost 160 years of seeking justice, Te Atiawa, Taranaki Tuturu and Ngaruahine saw their respective treaty claims pass into law.

The three iwi got to hear MPs recall the history of the grievance that has plagued the west coast North Island region for generations.

But there’s still unfinished business, with Te Atiawa, feeling short-changed by the New Plymouth District Council (Waitara Lands) Bill which is supposed to resolve the grievance around the Pekapeka Block at Waitara.

The Bill will allow the council’s lessees to freehold their homes, but only a small amount of land will go to the iwi, and most of that will remain as council-run reserves.

Labour’s Hauraki Waikato MP Nanaia Mahuta is adamant Pekapeka needs to be returned to the iwi because its illegal sale in 1860 is what ignited the Maori Land Wars.

She called for a political solution to allow it to be returned.

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