Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Work smarter with a Pro licence Learn More

Gordon Campbell | Parliament TV | Parliament Today | News Video | Crime | Employers | Housing | Immigration | Legal | Local Govt. | Maori | Welfare | Unions | Youth | Search

 

Part V of Te Urewera Report Released

Part V of Te Urewera Report Released

On 15 December 2014, the Waitangi Tribunal released in pre-publication form the fifth part of its report on Te Urewera claims. This part deals with Treaty of Waitangi claims in respect of Lake Waikaremoana, lodged by Tuhoe, Ngāti Ruapani, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngai Tamaterangi, and various associated groups and individuals. These important claims were the subject of extensive evidence and submission from the Crown and the claimants, which required a lengthy response on the Tribunal’s part in order to determine all the matters of alleged breach and prejudice.

Lake Waikaremoana is a taonga of immense importance to the claimant groups. They have an ancient connection with the lake, which their tradition says was created by their ancestress, Haumapuhia. Over generations, they forged associations with every part of the lake and their histories have been recorded in names all along its shores and headlands and in long-remembered traditions. The waters of the lake are still used in rituals and for healing and it is an economic resource providing traditional food to them. In all these things, the iwi are kaitiaki of Waikaremoana, its guardians or custodians. They possessed the lake, exercising exclusive rights to it; they are thus also its owners. And they exercised tino rangatiratanga – full authority – over Waikaremoana at the time of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.

Today, the iwi are still the lake’s owners and its kaitiaki, but their authority is a pale shadow of what it once was. In earlier parts of the report, the Tribunal found that the peoples of Waikaremoana suffered military invasion and destruction of their villages by Crown forces, displacement from their homes, and the loss by 1930 of nearly all their lands to the south and the north of the lake. They were reduced to a dire and lasting poverty. Despite these circumstances, and the limitations of the law – which recognised only individual title in the land beneath the waters of the lake, not tribal rights in a taonga waterway – they tried to protect their rights to the lake, and the lake itself.

In this part of the report, the Tribunal makes findings of Treaty breach arising from the Crown–Maori contest over Lake Waikaremoana, which have resulted in prejudice to the claimants.

Read the Waitangi Tribunal’s report Te Urewera, Part V (PDF, 2.1Mb).


Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Are you getting our free newsletter?

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.

© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

LATEST HEADLINES

  • PARLIAMENT
  • POLITICS
  • REGIONAL
 
 

InfoPages News Channels


 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.