December 22, 2020
Orakei edgy over neighbour’s wash up claim
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei is demanding an explanation from Waikato-Tainui for a map which seems to show its marae and other parts of what it calls its central Auckland heartland included in the confederation’s outstanding claims.
On the weekend its website posted a video from chair Marama Royal alerting members to the threat.
Deputy chair Ngarimu Blair says the board will do anything it can to protect its ahi kaa.
"We are very worried. Our experience here in Auckland is over the last 15 years people claiming an interest, historical, some even made up, and the crown buying those lines hook line and sinker without testing those interests to see whether they amount to anything that would be termed mana rights or mana whenua or ahi kaa," he says.
Mr Blair says it comes on top of the fight Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei is having with Hauraki and other iwi who have been offered settlement properties in central Auckland.
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