August 01, 2022
Golden age road to poverty for Ngāti Tara Tokanui
Paeroa-based Ngāti Tara Tokanui has become one of the last of the 12 Hauraki iwi to sign a settlement with the crown.
It will receive $6 million in financial redress as well as nine sites of cultural significance including Ngā Ure Tara, Mimitu Pā, Tawhitiaraia and Karangahake.
It will also receive collective redress through the Pare Hauraki Collective Settlement.
Ngāti Tara Tokanui had interests in the Katikati and Te Puna blocks which were lost in the confiscations and land dealings of the 1860s, and it was also badly affected by the discovery of gold.
The iwi was given title to Owharoa in the Karangahake gorge but saw none of the income from gold mining on its land, and its water supplies and food gathering areas were polluted by mining waste.
More of its land was taken under the Public Works Act for the Hauraki Plains drainage scheme, and there is now only 232 acres of Māori freehold land in its rohe.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little says the settlement marks a new beginning in restoring the relationship between both parties.
He says while no redress can fully compensate for the Crown’s past injustices against Ngāti Tara Tokanui, the redress in this settlement provides a foundation for the economic future of Ngāti Tara Tokanui to build upon and ensures the cultural relationship between Ngāti Tara Tokanui and sites of cultural significance is recognised for generations to come