One of the larger Treaty of Waitangi claims will commence next week and a confederation of related iwi will present a raft of claims against the Crown and in particular state the Crown purchase of a significant part of the Manawatū was defective.

The iwi comprise Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Kauwhata,Te Reureu, Ngāti Tukorehe and Ngati Wehiwehi. Former High Court judge Sir Taihākurei (Eddie) Durie (Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Raukawa, Rangitāne) is a key speaker and he will present an opening statement for the Northern Claims of the confederation, which extends north from the Manawatū River to the Rangitīkei River. The hearing is set for the second week in March commencing Monday 9 and ending on Friday 13. Hato Pāora College, Feilding is the venue for the first of twelve tribunal hearings which will run through to 2022.

The confederation refer to the taking of certain lands as “pene raupatu” or confiscation by the pen. Sir Taihākurei contends most of Manawatū and Rangitīkei, some 320,000 acres was deceitfully acquired by government without the consent of the resident hapū of Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Kauwhata and the Reureu. So instead of land taken by armed conflict it was through the power of the pen.

One purchase, of some 240,000 acres, is described as one of the most fraudulent in New Zealand history, and which was backed by a Native land Court decision that was described as corrupt. The purchases and the Native Land laws that removed the capacity of each tribe to manage its lands meant that the Rangitīkei, Manawatū and Horowhenua iwi became the most landless in the country. They lost more than most iwi in the proportion of their land that was taken by the Government and in terms of cultural loss, loss of papakāinga and therefore self-sufficiency; and a greater loss than others in the opportunity to participate in the country’s economy.

The incomparable quality and accessibility of the land which extended across the greater part of the Manawatū plains was also a factor.

“It was mostly flat with rich soils and wetlands and some easy, rolling land. Nearly all was arable. There was very little steep hill country. In the Oroua valley the vast tracts of well-timbered forest and plantations of flax provided an immediate return to settlers to meet development costs. All was within easy reach of where the settlers were landing, at Foxton and Wellington.”

The proportion of land acquired by the Crown, in relation to the total land which the hapū possessed, was probably the highest in the North Island. As a result, from as early as the 1870s, Ngāti Raukawa became one of the most landless, North Island, iwi.

“It has been amongst the most landless for over 100 years, and may have been the most landless. The critical issue for tribal survival is not the amount lost but the amount that remains for the people at the end of the process. It is this extent of landlessness that most calls for a fulsome reparation, to settle the past by providing for a more secure future for the hapū.”

Significant is the fact that Sir Taihākurei was born in 1940, one hundred years after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and he has borne witness to the “parlous state of the iwi and pain of the elders in their assumption the land, the language, the marae and the identity of hapū was on the verge of being lost forever.”

This hearing is the commencement of proceedings that will start in Manawatū and progress to Horowhenua and Ōtaki following the historical sequence of events. The original claim was lodged in 1989 by kaumātua – Whata Karaka Davis, Ngārongo Iwikatea Nicholson, Te Maharanui Jacob and Pita Richardson. They have now all passed on. The inquiry will proceed intermittently covering north and south over about three years.

The proceedings will open at Hato Pāora College. Ngāti Toa of Porirua, with whom there is a customary association, will begin, describing the taking of the district by Te Rauparaha and others of Ngāti Toa. Jerald Twomey of Ngāti Parewahawaha, Ngāti Manomano and Ngāti Pikiahu of the Rangitīkei River district, and Ngāti Takihiku of the Manawatū, will introduce the Rangitīkei, Manawatū, Horowhenua, and Ōtaki hapū (tribes) and their relationships to one another. Te Kenehi Teira of Ngāti Ngārongo of southern Manawatū will describe the migration of the various hapū of the Ngāti Raukawa confederation who came as a support group. Hon Sir Taihākurei Durie will introduce the claims of the Rangitīkei-Manawatū hapū. He is of Ngāti Kauwhata of the central, Oroua district and Ngāti Rangatahi of the northern Reureu sector.

The rest of the week will be taken up on hearing from teams of researchers commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal and the Crown Forestry Rental Trust to investigate the claims and who have completed substantial reports.

The Inquiry is open to the public, pōwhiri will be on Monday 9 March, 9am.

The Tribunal will meet again in May 11-15, (venue to be confirmed) to continue hearing from commissioned researchers.

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