Ngāi Tai ki Tōrere has reached a major milestone in settling its historical grievances with the Crown, following the initialling of its Deed of Settlement, Ngakingaki te Whenua.
Ngāi Tai descendants gathered at Parliament in Wellington on 17 September for the initialling, which sets out the Crown’s acknowledgements and apology for historical Treaty breaches, along with cultural, financial and commercial redress.
Ngāi Tai kaumātua Arapata Mio said entering Parliament for the occasion brought to mind those who helped begin the journey.
“He mea hōu ki a mātou kia haramai ki roto i tēnei whare. He mea hōu, engari ko te tīmatanga o te kaupapa, nā tērā o ngā pāpā, nā Uncle John Maxwell,” he said.
“He mea mīharo tēnei mō te iwi. Mō rātou [hoki] kāre i konei i tēnei wā, mō rātou i tīmatahia tēnei kaupapa. Engari kei konei rātou, kei waenganui i a tātou i tēnei wā. Me te mea anō, kei te harikoa rātou.”
The path towards settlement has spanned close to four decades for the Eastern Bay of Plenty iwi. Ngāi Tai Iwi Authority chair Anaru Vercoe reflected on where this milestone placed the iwi on that journey.
“Whā tekau ngā tau kua heke atu, kua tae kē pea ki tētahi pito o te maunga. He haerenga tonu, engari ko tēnei mea te cornerstone of us moving forward.”
Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith also reflected on the history behind the milestone.
“It’s a very special day, they’ve been waiting many, many years,” he said. “The first claim was raised in the 1980s but the grievances have been held for decades and going back more than a century.”
Land return, financial redress and aquaculture
Whenua has remained a central focus throughout Ngāi Tai’s negotiations with the Crown. Vercoe pointed to one of the objectives Ngāi Tai had taken into negotiations.
“There was an aspiration right from the very beginning, that was the return of four Crown-owned lands to us.
Among the key aspirations were the return of conservation land within the Ngāi Tai rohe and the land on which Te Kura o Tōrere stands, where generations of the iwi have been educated.
Under the proposed settlement, the school site will be vested in the tribe’s governance entity and leased back to the Crown for continued educational use. Other land arrangements form part of a broader package intended to restore Ngāi Tai relationships with significant places within its rohe. Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka outlined the scale of the whenua involved.
“Kia hoki whenua atu ki ō rātou ringaringa atawhai, ki ō rātou ringaringa whakahaere. 17,000 heketea pea ka whakahokia ki te taitara o Ngāi Tai. Me te mōhio hoki, ko Te Kura o Tōrere, ā, kei reira tētahi wāhi tūpuna, ka whakahokia ki te iwi.”
Mio welcomed what he heard from the minister, particularly around the return of Crown-held conservation land.
“Pai te rongo i ngā kōrero a te Minita, āe, ko ngā pēhitanga e pā ana ki a ngāi mātou a Ngāi Tai me tērā o ngā kōrero nāna, arā ko te whakahoki i te whenua. Ehara ko te whenua o ētahi atu iwi, engari ko ngā whenua kei te pupurihia e DOC.”
The proposed settlement also includes land within the Raukūmara Range and areas in which Ngāi Tai and neighbouring iwi have overlapping interests. Minister Goldsmith placed the agreement within the wider settlement process undertaken between iwi and the Crown.
“We look back and it’s part of a process that we as a country, as a nation have been working on for 30 years to recognise the misdeeds of the past and to bring a measure of settlement and a particular feature of this settlement is the return of conservation land in particular blocks that have been a real concern for them over many years.”
“There’s been an arrangement made with Te Whānau a Apanui over 5,000 hectares as well,” Goldsmith added. “So, that return of land that was lost was a particular focus.”
The settlement package includes $12 million in financial and commercial redress, including $1 million towards the costs associated with seeking resource consents for aquaculture.
It also provides Ngāi Tai with exclusive rights to apply for coastal permits for aquaculture within specified marine space, which is to be reserved for that purpose for 35 years.
‘Ngā tapuwae ki mua’
The future of Ngāi Tai was also represented at the negotiating table, with rangatahi negotiator James Waerengaahika Maxwell appointed to the negotiating team. Maxwell carries with him the legacy of the late Te Tawhiro Maxwell, a noted educator and leader of Ngāi Tai, whose words are recorded in the deed.
For the younger Maxwell, that legacy provided a way of placing his generation within the wider settlement journey.
“Tuatahi ake, [me] hoki whenua mai, koia te take matua. Heoi, e ai ki tō mātou nei pāpā rā a Te Tawhiro: ‘Ngā moemoeā ki tua, ngā ara ki nāianei, ngā tapuwae ki mua.’ Koinei te take.”
The deed also records the Crown’s acknowledgements of historical acts and omissions affecting Ngāi Tai and provides for a formal Crown apology alongside the agreed redress.
The next stage
The proposed agreement will now be taken back to Ngāi Tai for ratification, alongside decisions over the governance entity that will ultimately receive and administer the settlement redress. Vercoe said attention would now turn to the governance structure that will carry the settlement forward.
“Pēhea te huarahi mō te PSG, mā rātou e whakahaere me pēhea, me pēhea ki mua i a mātou.”
The deed expressly provides that the settlement is conditional upon settlement legislation coming into force. Goldsmith remained optimistic about the path ahead.
“It’s very exciting to get to the initialling point and it will now be taken to Ngāi Tai for ratification and we hope that we’ll be able to pass it in the next year.”
But for Vercoe, the milestone carried a deeper significance.
“Ngāi Tai is here now. Kāre he iwi ngaro. Kei konei tonu mātou.”
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