Eight Iwi Approved To Receive Assets

A further eight iwi organisations have been mandated by Te Ohu Kaimoana, the Maori Fisheries Trust, and $60 million of the Maori fisheries settlement allocated to them.

The latest group of approvals brings to 34 the number of Mandated Iwi Organisations (MIOs) so far and comes a year after the first iwi, Ngapuhi, received its share of the settlement last September.

“The first assets were distributed by Te Ohu Kaimoana only 12 months ago. Thirty-four iwi organisations have now become MIOs and we’ve distributed the equivalent of 60 percent of the value of the settlement,” chief executive Peter Douglas said.

Te Ohu Kaimoana was well ahead of its allocation schedule and still planned to have almost all iwi through the MIO process in time for the April 2007 fishing year. However, Mr Douglas reiterated that a handful of iwi organisations might not be approved in that time because of conflicts with the Crown’s process for settling Treaty grievances.

“I recognise that all iwi have limited resources to resolve the myriad issues that they need to deal with in the settlement process. There are instances where some iwi are spending those resources dealing with the Crown’s processes and placing Te Ohu Kaimoana’s requirements on the backburner,” he said.

Mr Douglas added that the Crown’s “mandating” process provided some difficulties for various iwi but Te Ohu Kaimoana had simplified the requirements through the development and distribution of template management structures and legal constitutions.

“We’ve tried to make accessing their share of the fisheries settlement as easy as possible for iwi. It’s a matter of following the steps and their fisheries assets, in most cases worth millions of dollars, are available at the end of it.”

“I would have thought for iwi in the Treaty settlement process that a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush,” Mr Douglas said.

Included in the latest approvals is Te Kotahitanga o Te Arawa Waka Fisheries Trust as the Joint MIO representing the 11 iwi of Te Arawa rohe. Te Arawa is one of four iwi under the Maori Fisheries Act 2004 that represents a collective of iwi groups and is the last of these four groups to be recognised as a JMIO.

Also included are the South Island-based Ngati Tama Manawhenua Ki Te Tau Ihu; Ngati Raukawa ki Waikato; Ngaitai, near Opotoki; Tuhoe; Taranaki; Ngati Pukenga of Tauranga Moana, and Te Atiawa (Taranaki).

As stated previously, these iwi will have the “population” component of their share of the settlement allocated to them on achieving MIO status, while the remaining share of the inshore, harbour, remaining deepwater and freshwater fishstocks would be allocated once agreements have been reached between them and with adjacent iwi. These agreements can be concluded when those adjacent iwi have also been recognised as MIOs.

IWI APPROX VALUE (NZ$)
Te Arawa (representing 11 iwi) $23,602,000
Taranaki 3,495,000
Ngati Tama (South Island) 364,000
Ngati Pukenga 988,000
Ngaitai 1,320,000
Tuhoe 17,309,000
Te Atiawa (Taranaki) 8,237,000
Ngati Raukawa ki Waikato 5,271,000
TOTAL 60,586,000

ENDS

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