The final reading of a treaty settlement bill has marked a victory decades in the making for a Hauraki iwi.
Ngāti Tara Tokanui is set to receive $6 million in financial and commercial redress from the Crown, along with nine total cultural redress sites and a two-year right to purchase the land Paeroa College sits on if it becomes surplus.
Two other iwi also had their own bills pass through - Ngāti Rāhiri Tumutumu and Ngāti Hei. The former is set to receive $5.5 million, with the latter obtaining $8.5 million. All three iwi also received formal apologies from the Crown.
While formal negotiations began in 2011, treaty negotiator and executive chairperson of the Ngāti Tara Tokanui Trust, Dr Amelia Williams, said the journey was carried by those who are no longer with the iwi to see the result.
“The process has been gruelling - technically complex, emotionally draining and at times deeply frustrating,” she said.
“The ups have been the moments of unity for our iwi, the unwavering steadfast commitment of our negotiators... the downs have been the slow pace, the power imbalance at the negotiating table and the painful ever-present reality that no settlement can restore what was taken.”
She specifically mentioned co-negotiator Russell Karu as an “invaluable” force through the process, who “has remained unstinting in his focus on a just settlement of our iwi”.
The final reading of the bill signifies a new chapter for the iwi, Williams says, describing how iwi members present in Parliament felt a sense of being “free”.
“The apology is significant, it is an acknowledgement on the public record, of wrongs that have shaped our iwi’s story for generations,” she said.
“But an apology is only as meaningful as the actions that follow it. We accept it in the spirit that it is offered, while remaining clear-eyed about the work still to come to give it substance.”
In a statement, Waitangi Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith said the settlement “reflects the commitment, resilience, and determination” of all iwi.
While he added no settlement could “fully compensate for the Crown’s injustices”, he hoped it would help support the iwi’s aspirations as well as create “a platform for enduring relationships between the Crown and iwi for generations to come”.
When asked what would be made of the funds and properties once awarded, Williams said the immediate focus is ticking off the remaining elements of the settlement.
She added that matters are being finalised with the Department of Conservation to restore many of the cultural redress sites that are damaged.
“As for Paeroa College, that is part of the ongoing matters to be settled.”
“It is an education facility which we respect, and we will engage and share with the community to ensure the long-term well-being of education for Paeroa.”
The iwi’s focus moving forward will be building up its capabilities, restoring whenua and ensuring the Crown is held to the partnership it has acknowledged “in the house of the people,” Williams said.
“We can only put Aotearoa right through working in true partnership between iwi and the Crown. That is the work ahead.“
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air