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Carpetbaggers trying to exploit the treaty settlement process for financial gain.
That’s how the chief executive of Tauranga Moana iwi Ngai Te Rangi is describing Hauraki’s attempt to secure acknowledgement that it has interests in Tauranga Harbour.
Hauraki’s settlement deed initialled just before Christmas includes an acknowledgement the iwi has historic and cultural interests in Tauranga Moana, but any cultural redress will need to be negotiated later.
Paora Stanley says Hauraki is exploiting the Government’s desire to settle all historical claims by the end of this year.
In the process, the Office of Treaty Settlements is ignoring culture and tikanga.
He told Radio Waatea they’ve tried it in Tamaki Makaurau and got away with it, but Ngai Te Rangi is fighting back.
“They say they have desires within our area – that they have married in to our whanau and therefore have interests there, but they have no marae and they cannot prove any urupa belong to them.
“It’s a messy situation created by policy and exploited by a group who think they have something to win off us,” Mr Stanley says.
Ngai Te Rangi met last week with Ngati Whatua Orakei and Waikato Tainui to discuss the issue.
Meanwhile on Friday a group of Te Arawa kaumatua are travelling from Rotorua to Whitianga to discuss how the Hauraki settlement needs to acknowledge their iwi’s interest in Moeahau Mountain on the Coromandel Peninsula, because leading Te Arawa ancestors are buried there.
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