May 06, 2024
Coastal seas still choppy 20 years from hikoi
Twenty years after he stood on the steps of Parliament to defend Labour’s Foreshore and Seabed Bill to a hostile hikoi, former Labour MP John Tamihere says the country still hasn’t got the right formula for addressing MĀori customary rights.
That law assumed crown ownership of the takutai moana and stopped the Maori Land Court considering whether it should issue title to part of the Marlborough Sounds.
It was replaced in 2011 by the National-Maori Party Government’s Marine and Coastal Area Act allowing iwi and hapu to either negotiate title or go to the High Court for a determination.
Mr Tamihere, who is now Te Pati Maori president, says with the exception of Ngati Porou which carved out a separate deal, most iwi are still waiting on the courts.
“There are some very difficult conversations to be had over foreshore and seabed still. It just hasn’t been resolved, either through litigation or through regulation so it’s still a grind for a lot of iwi up and down the country,” he says.