December 08, 2017
Whatua push for exclusivity in Tamaki
Ngati Whatua Orakei is hailing an agreement with Ngati Paoa as a push back against the crown's treaty settlement policy.
Spokesperson Ngarimu Blair says the kawenata signed yesterday with the east Auckland and Hauraki Gulf iwi ends court action between the two.
Orakei will continue to the Supreme Court in relation to its concerns over the Marutuahu and Hauraki collective claims.
Mr Blair says the crown is threatening tikanga with its policy on overlapping claims.
"We have been pushing back on this interim ruling from 2006 which is being used and abused and a line picked up there from Judge Carrie Wainwright that it was so complex in Auckland, there are many layers of interest. We decided not to challenge that. We as an expression of our mana wanted everyone to get to a settlement and we came up with the Tamaki Collective deal which is about mountains and shared rights of first refusal across the region but it has been abused and it was extended well beyond the mountains," he says.
Mr Blair says iwi need to go back to respecting each other’s heartlands, and there is no such thing as an area with many mana whenua.
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