December 21, 2022
Crown’s assaults on Kapiti iwi detailed
The Waitangi Tribunal has found the National Government’s 1995 sale of Paraparaumu Airport to private developers rather than offering it back to the descendants of the original landowners was a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi.
The finding is part of the third volume of the tribunal’s Porirua ki Manawatū District Inquiry Report, covering Te Ātiawa/Ngāti Awa Claims from Waikanae to Paekākāriki.
Te Ati Awa ki Whakarongotai Charitable Trust chair Andre Baker says the report vindicates the iwi’s multi-generational fight against the Crown.
Andre Baker says Te Atiawa is still waiting for the Prime Minister and Te Tai Hauāuru MP Adrian Rurawhe to make good on their promise to address the findings of the Waitangi Tribunal’s earlier urgent report on protecting what remains of Kārewarewa, a Waikanae urupā which had its cemetery designation removed in the 1990s so it could be developed for housing.