Ngā mihi o te tau hou Pākehā ki a tatou katoa i runga i ōu koutou kāinga.
There have been a range of developments and progress made with our iwi’s WAI 30, Remaining Claims and the Maniapoto Settlement. This pānui is to provide you all with an update.
Waikato Tainui
Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Hikairo has effectively reached an impasse with Waikato Tainui. The current situation does not put our iwi in a position of achieving the clear aspirations of our mana motuhake and rangatiratanga with respect to the moana and our remaining claims.
Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Hikairo will be seeking to present all the options to the iwi in June 2022 and we will undertake a vote on the options that we currently have before us. It is therefore crucial that all our whanau register on the iwi website, and we encourage you to do so. This mandating and voting process is critical in being able to progress the next steps with Te Arawhiti.
Te Arawhiti
We have had two meetings with Te Arawhiti in Wellington on 14 December 2021 and then on Tuesday 18 January 2022. These meetings were lead by Lees Seymour as Project Manager and Susan Turner (Chair of Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Hikairo). These meetings were to consider our position with respect to our MACA claim as well Wai 30 and our remaining claims.
In summary, the meetings were very good, which resulted in understanding further the potential funding changes with respect to MACA and funding options for our WAI 30 and remaining claims work programme. We further discussed options to resolve the impasse with Waikato Tainui and action is under way to address these matters. Te Arawhiti is keen to work with us to find a way that we can participate in the Wai 30 process and to enable us to settle our outstanding claims.
Te Arawhiti took their time to acknowledge the importance of Ngāti Hikairo within our rohe and our position as one of the pre-eminent iwi of Kāwhia Moana.
We have now set out options to the Chief Executive Officer of Te Arawhiti (Lil Anderson) based on our discussions with her staff and are awaiting her response
MACA
We are still making great progress with respect to gathering evidence about our historical and customary use of Kāwhia Moana, other coastal areas and Te Tai a Kupe (the sea outside of the harbour). Our Historian has provided a copy of his initial draft report and it is looking amazing. Our Iwi Researcher Tirohanga Kāwhia Johnson has also done some amazing work with the interviews she has undertaken (and transcribed) with several of our iwi members, that focus on our oral histories. Unfortunately, Tirohanga Kāwhia has had to step aside for personal reasons from her important mahi to take care of herself. We wish her all the best and thank her for the amazing work she has undertaken for our iwi. We have been fortunate to recruit another well-regarded iwi member in Lesley Kelly who has come on board to assist myself with the write up of these interviews. Our target is to have the final draft of these reports completed in early April – not far away – exciting
Engagement with Maniapoto
Things have slowed down over the Xmas period; however we are back on track and are planning a meeting in the near future with Maniapoto to continue discussions whereby we each agree our respective boundaries and a process to manage overlapping interests. A draft agreement is in development which we will share with the iwi as it becomes available. We also discussed Kāwhia Moana and our desire to work together with respect to issues that affect the moana, the health of the moana is of the utmost importance. Our interactions with Maniapoto have been very positive thus far.
In the meantime here are some interesting videos for you to watch
Ngā Pari Kāranganga, Ngā Rākau Tūpuna, Series 6 Episode 1 | Māori Television (maoritelevision.com)
Waka Huia Jack Cunningham – YouTube
We will be holding our next live Zoom meeting on Sunday, 13 February at 4pm.
I look forward to connecting with you all then. Here is the link:
Ngā Manaakitanga
Lees Seymour
Claims Project Manager
Ngāti Hikairo
