August 01, 2018
Ngātiwai say the Crown is settling Hauraki claims with Ngātiwai whenua
MEDIA STATEMENT
Thursday, 2 August 2018
For immediate release
Ngātiwai say the Crown is settling Hauraki claims with Ngātiwai whenua
In a flash of cut and pasted letters from Officials last Friday, Ngātiwai and other iwi involved are now learning that Treaty Claims Minister Andrew Little will proceed with signing the Pare Hauraki Collective Redress Deed today.
The small iwi of the Hauraki have turned their historical “interests” on Aotea (Great Barrier Island) to having land and “Mana” there.
Ngātiwai Trust Board Chairman, Haydn Edmonds says “Hauraki iwi have no business in claiming rights on Aotea. They have no marae there, they have no urupā there and they don’t even have historical names there. If the Crown wants to settle their so called interests on Aotea, give them cash and leave the islands of our hapū alone”
Ngātiwai stand united with other iwi: Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Whātua ki Orākei, Waikato and others opposing this empire expansion out of Thames to large areas encompassing Tauranga Moana, Waikato, Tāmaki Makaurau up to Te Ārai Point and Aotea.
“We have been making some good progress in establishing a genuine tikanga process for resolving matters, with discussions being held on our marae with Ngāti Hako and Ngāti Pāoa. We acknowledge the mana of these iwi to work things out. This is not tick-a-box tikanga!”
“To sign off on any Settlements before we have had the opportunity to have dialogue and resolves issues with the iwi of Hauraki will only cause further grievances, time in court and more money down the drain. The Settlement will be resented, opposed and fought against for generations to come. None of us want that.”
The Ngātiwai Trust Board has only ever had one meeting with the Hauraki Collective Treaty Negotiator Paul Majurey, where at this meeting no agreements or discussions of any substance were had regarding their overlapping claims into our rohe.
“For Crown officials to say that this one and only meeting on 31 October 2013 with Paul Majurey is considered due process, well quite frankly that is laughable. How can a Settlement with a list of our redress get signed off on one meeting with no agreements?”
“Last year we saw a change of Government. We are looking to this government not to poke what has become a festering sore in Treaty Settlement Policy. We are sick of having to once again mobilise our people to go from one fight to fight another, consuming the resources and time of our people. We seek help from this government to do the right thing by everybody.”
ENDS
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