A major Treaty settlement milestone for Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri is putting the Chatham Islands firmly in the spotlight as Conservation Minister Tama Potaka turns his attention from election-year politics to whenua, whakapapa and the protection of Aotearoa’s taonga.
Potaka and Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith have travelled to Wharekauri as Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri reaches the final stages of settling its historical Treaty of Waitangi claims.
The settlement follows decades of negotiations over Crown actions affecting the iwi, including land alienation, the Native Land Court, fishing rights and the impacts on tikanga and reo.
Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri and the Crown initialled a Deed of Settlement in December 2025 after negotiations stretching back years. The proposed package is valued at $18 million and includes financial, commercial and cultural redress alongside a Crown apology and recognition of historical breaches of Te Tiriti.
The settlement is particularly significant because of the complex history of Rēkohu and Wharekauri.
Moriori reached their own Deed of Settlement with the Crown in February 2020. That settlement recognised Moriori as waina pono, the original inhabitants, and one of the tangata whenua groups of the Chatham Islands. It included a Crown apology, cultural redress and $18 million in financial redress.
The relationship between history, whenua and identity on the islands has taken on another dimension following the extraordinary discovery of an ancient waka.
The waka was found after Nikau Dix spotted an unusual piece of wood while walking along a remote Chatham Islands beach in August 2024.
A partial archaeological excavation subsequently uncovered between 600 and 700 pieces, including parts of cordage, sails and matting, while only about 10 percent of the waka itself has so far been recovered.
Radiocarbon evidence has placed material associated with the waka between about 1440 and 1470 AD, during a significant period of Pacific voyaging.
The discovery has attracted international archaeological interest, but it also carries deep cultural significance.
Moriori organisations have lodged a claim of ownership and believe the vessel could be connected with Rangihoua, a voyaging waka recorded in Moriori traditions.
Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri has also registered an interest in the taonga and what further investigation could reveal about the history of the islands. The question of ownership is before the Māori Land Court.
For Potaka, those issues sit alongside his responsibilities as Conservation Minister, where several recent developments are highlighting both the vulnerability and resilience of Aotearoa’s indigenous species.
In Taranaki, new investment is supporting coastal habitat restoration and the protection of kōkako, continuing efforts to restore ecosystems and strengthen populations of threatened native species.
There has also been excitement among conservation staff following a rare sighting of a spotted skink, providing another reminder of the species that can survive when habitat and predator pressures are properly managed.
On the West Coast, DOC is reporting encouraging progress with some of the country’s rarest kiwi.
Seventeen Haast tokoeka have been returned from Orokonui Ecosanctuary to the Haast Kiwi Sanctuary, while two more pukupuku, or little spotted kiwi, have been added to the monitored mainland population in the Adams Wilderness Area.
The Haast tokoeka population numbers only about 550 birds and remains nationally vulnerable. Conservation efforts include large-scale predator control, monitoring, Operation Nest Egg and protected kōhanga sites.
The discovery of mainland pukupuku has been equally significant. The population was rediscovered in South Westland after the birds had not been recorded there for about 50 years, and nine birds are now being monitored.
From an ancient waka emerging from the sands of Rēkohu to rare kiwi surviving in the forests of Te Waipounamu, the conservation portfolio increasingly intersects with whakapapa, mātauranga Māori and the relationship tangata whenua maintain with the natural world.
For Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri, the Treaty settlement marks another step in addressing a long history with the Crown.
But the wider story stretching from Wharekauri to Taranaki and the West Coast is also about what happens next — protecting whenua, recovering history and ensuring taonga species and cultural knowledge remain for the generations still to come.
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