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Iwi in Manawatu have been hurting this week as they shared stories of the deception and fraud that deprived them of their lands.

In the first of what will be 12 weeks of hearings over the next three years, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Kauwhata and Te Reureu told of their arrival in the area in the great move led by Te Rauparaha and Ngāti Toa Rangatira, and how their land was taken from them by what they call pene raupatu – confiscation by the pen – when they refused to sell to European settlers.

Dennis Emery from Te Hono ki Raukawa Trust says the hearing at Hato Paora College in Feilding has come with a health warning.

“Each morning when we start our karakia, part of it is to say to our people who are coming to listen to this, ‘some of the korero you will hear, some of the evidence given by the technical witnesses, he mamae ki a mātou ne, it will hurt.’ It does hurt but we have had to steel ourselves, we have had to test right inside our inner wairua to make sure that we have these stories told,” Mr Emery says.

Dennis Emery

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