Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little says a sovereign fund set up to hold money and assets earmarked for the Ngāpuhi settlement is a way to ensure the tribe doesn’t fall further behind as it works out how the settlement will be done.

The crown has ripped up the playbook that involved sitting down with mandated negotiating body Tūhoronuku, and it now intends to negotiate cultural redress with takiwa or clusters of hapu in the various areas within Northland.

It’s still not clear who will negotiate the issues that affect the whole tribe and the overall commercial redress, but in the meantime a trust can be set up.

"We’d put some crown assets in it, could be $100 million. We'd start investing that straight away, investing in income generating and value generating assets that could start to provide a bit of support to Ngāpuhi but most importantly to grow that value so by the time we get to the point of agreement on redress it can be available there as well as whatever top up is negotiated," Mr Little says.

He is already hearing from people with commercial backgrounds and Ngāpuhi whakapapa who are willing to act as trustees.

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