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 Kārangaranga, He Piko He Taniwha, Series 5 Episode 3 | Māori Television (maoritelevision.com)

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

We are making good progress with the research associated with the Marine and Coastal Area MACA high court case. Tirohanga Kāwhia Johnson our Iwi researcher is having some wonderful conversations with our iwi members as she researches Hikairo kōrero about our experiences with Kāwhia Moana and the Sea outside of the harbour mouth.

In addition the historians that we have engaged have been able to identify lots of historical evidence that supports what we already know that Ngāti Hikairo are people who utilised Kāwhia Moana and the sea for generations to support ourselves, our families and our way of life. Tirohanga and the historians will in time write a comprehensive report outlining their research and findings that will be invaluable in our court case, and will in turn be shared with us as Ngāti Hikairo. The court case is currently scheduled for June 2022.

Treaty of Waitangi claims – a lot of good work is being undertaken here as well with the next significant milestone being a meeting scheduled for October 11 ( COVID restrictions permitting) with Waikato—Tainui to discuss our claims, the draft Oati that we have prepared and how we might engage with Waikato Tainui with respect to settling our remaining claims. To recap we essentially have two options to settle our remaining claims;

1. Go by ourselves or;
2. Join with Waikato– Tainui and a number of other Iwi to settle the Wai 30 claim and our other remaining claims.

In the meeting we are seeking ways in which we will be can work together using a tikanga based approach, that enables Ngāti Hikairo to achieve our aspirations with the support and assistance of Waikato– Tainui.

Once we have a better understanding of the pluses and minuses of each option we will bring this back to the iwi for your review so that a decision can be made about the option we choose.

The Te Rohe Potae Claims

Te Rohe Potae Waitangi Tribunal Report

The last draft chapter of the report was finally released on the 8th June 2020 and is currently being reviewed by the claims team.

However the following from the report states:

23.10.4 Tribal identity

“We find that the Crown has acted inconsistently with the principle of equal treatment by failing to respect the distinct identity of Ngāti Hikairo and Ngāti Te Wehi”.

Ngati Maniapoto

Despite Ngati Maniapoto having completed their mandating process, issues have arisen with hapu citing that their interests have not been fairly represented by the mandating process. Ngati Maniapoto are in the process of negotiating with these groups.

While in discussions with the Office of Treaty Settlements, now called Te Arawhiti, Ngati Maniapoto have been asked also to discuss cross-boundary issues with neighbouring iwi, including Ngati Hikairo.

Waikato- Tainui

WT are currently negotiating representation with various hapu and iwi prior to commencing the mandating process. Ngati Hikairo, along with hapu around Whaingaroa/Raglan have not agreed to WT representing their interests at this time. Part of the issue is that Waikato Tainui are unable to clearly explain how Ngati Hikairo will maintain its mana moana and mana whenua if represented by Waikato Tainui. Discussions are due to resume with Ngati Hikairo.

Ngati Hikairo

At this time the claims team have been approved by Te Arawhiti an iwi consultation period as part of the discussion regarding the claims process. This will include consultation with Iwi on the direction we will be taking to settle our outstanding claims.  The ability to do this has been hampered by the COVID19 restrictions. A survey will be posted soon for whanau to complete regarding the process of the consultation.