November 24, 2021
Moriori settlement passes into law
The dispossession and enslavement of Moriori in their homeland has been acknowledged with the passing of the third reading of the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill yesterday.
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little says it marks a new beginning in the relationship between the crown and Moriori.
The settlement includes a Crown apology for historical breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi for matters such as the Crown’s failure to act to end the enslavement of Moriori, the failure to protect Moriori from becoming virtually landless, and the Crown’s contribution to the stigmatisation of Moriori as a racially inferior people who became extinct.
It also includes the transfer of culturally and spiritually significant lands on Rēkohu/ Chatham Islands to Moriori as cultural redress, financial redress of $18 million, and shared redress such as the vesting of 50-per cent of Te Whanga Lagoon.