MEDIA RELEASE

Ngāti Hine walks from the Andrew Little hui

Date: 15 August 2018

“Two Ngāti Hine hapū speakers were denied speaking rights at a meeting hosted by the Minister of Treaty Negotiations Andrew Little on Sunday at Te Tii Mangonui” says Rowena Tana.

Hapū speakers had prepared to represent the nine hapū of Ngāti Hine alongside other Te Takutai Moana (Bay of Islands) neighbours. However, due to the planned structure of the meetings, the Crown only provided people a meagre 45 mins to engage in dialogue and offer feedback. We feel this is disingenuous by the Minister and that we were severely prejudiced given that the purpose of the hui was to allow opinions about the proposal to be heard.

This prejudice became very apparent post the hui when the Minister announced publically that the new proposal had received enough support to proceed further.

A series of six regional hui held across Ngapuhi consistently showed significant opposition against Little’s proposal which the people said was largely identical to the original Tuhoronuku mandate which has been played down in media by the Government.

Huhana Lyndon, hapū kaikorero for Te Orewai says “the proposal has been predetermined by the Minister which has been firmly rejected. Instead, we want to engage with the Minister and his officials and build a strong foundation from the bottom up for a solid treaty negotiation instead of the top-down model currently proposed.”

Out of frustration and disappointment at having Ngāti Hine speakers denied the right to speak, Pita Tipene was instructed by his people to stand in unity and walk out of the hui along with other supporters forcing the meeting to close down prematurely.

We remain steadfast in our resolve to have Ngati Hine’s historical claims addressed in a way that protects, respects and reflects our hapu rangatiratanga as well as the needs and aspirations of our people.

Ngāti Hine are solutions focussed and were active alongside other Ngapuhi hapū, Office of Treaty Settlements and Tuhoronuku to develop the Maranga Mai Proposal which went through rigorous consultation and was heralded as the new model to take our iwi forward. Regrettably the Labour led government has chosen not to proceed with Maranga Mai.

Tuhoronuku only has a conditional mandate; the conditions have not been met for some time, yet the government continues to recognise that mandate. If the Crown has any integrity, why hasn’t it withdrawn the mandate on the grounds that the conditions have not been met?

Ngāti Hine hapū want to get on with it and have been through a process of considering a range of positive redress options that intend to honour our tupuna, benefit all Ngāti Hine people no matter where they are in the world and the generations to come.

Like our other neighbouring hapū of Te Takutai Moana we have capacity, we have capability and we have strong historical bonds with each other. We are ready to move.

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