December 06, 2022
Vote will allow Whakatōhea recovery
The chair of Whakatōhea Pre-Settlement Claims Trust chair says the real work begins now the iwi has accepted the Crown’s treaty settlement offer.
The hotly-contested ratification vote has 35 percent turnout, with five out of six hapu and 67 percent of voters in support of the offer of $100 million dollars, 6-thousand hectares of land, and 5-thousand hectares of marine space.
Graeme Riesterer says while it’s a fraction of the 144-thousand hectares the Opotiki-based iwi lost through raupatu in the 1860s, it’s a start.
“One of the things our people have always said was, we will buy back – one acre at a time – every piece of our land. And that’s what we intend to do. And this settlement will help us get there, in the future,” he says.
Mr Riesterer called on the hapū which opposed the offer to now come on board for the greater good of the iwi.