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August 14, 2023
Nelson Māori in court for land loss remedies
Adam Gifford
Posted On August 14, 2023
Descendants of the original owners of Nelson, Tasman and Golden Bay start a case in the High Court case in Wellington today to enforce the contract made on sale.
The Wakatu Incorporation has a 2017 Supreme Court judgment that the Crown owes a legal duty to the beneficiaries of the Nelson Tenths Reserves, which were supposed to be set aside after the 1839 sale of 151-thousand acres to the New Zealand Company.
Less than a third of that was reserved, and only a fraction remained when it was handed over to Wakatu to manage in 1977.
Constitutional lawyer Claire Charters, who was involved in the Supreme Court case, says the remedies hearing takes indigenous redress in Aotearoa outside the confines of the Waitangi Tribunal and treaty settlement process.
“Any decision is forceable against the Crown in courts. To some extent in particularly in public law settings, courts are there to force their decisions including against the Crown. That is really important, that the Crown is held to account under the law,” she says
The hearing, which is described as the largest litigation against the Crown in New Zealand’s history, is scheduled to last ten weeks.
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