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Forest split drives Māhaki hearing
Te Aitanga a Māhaki has been before the Waitangi Tribunal in Gisborne this week arguing about what remedies it should get for its claims and how that should be divided among competing interests.
At stake is not just what happened in the crown’s 1865 attack on Waerenga a Hika in 1865, the subsequent imprisonment of tribe members on Chatham Islands without trial and the loss of over 1 million acres of land.
The tribunal is also being asked to consider the future ownership of the Mangatū forest, which was taken from the Mangatū Incorporation in 1961 for erosion control but then turned into a commercial forest.
Lead negotiator Willie Te Aho says the crown offer is $175 million, with Te Aitanga a Māhaki, associated hapū Ngā Ariki Kaipūtahi and Te Whānau a Kai and the incorporation all seeking a piece.
"We’ve been unable to reach agreement on that particular issue over the last four to eight years and we've said as Aitanga a Māhaki is we're going back to the tribunal to enforce their powers to give us guidance on who should get what but we are united in saying it should be 100 percent of the land returned and 100 percent compensation," he says.
Because of the amount of time spent cross examining witnesses there will be another hearing in November.
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