A Ngāpuhi hapū leader today told Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith the country’s biggest iwi should get an $8.43 billion redress for generations of losses.
Te Whiu chairman Te Rau Allen-Arena’s call came as Goldsmith met formally with Ngāpuhi hapū for the first time at Whitiora Marae in Te Tii on Te Puna Inlet in the Bay of Islands today.
Goldsmith visited Te Tii for Te Kotahitanga o ngā hapū Ngāpuhi’s October meeting, amidst efforts to get Ngāpuhi hapū together to work towards treaty settlement.
“Te Kotahitanga continues to have a goal to be a forum where the hapū of Ngāpuhi can come together and configure themselves for Treaty negotiations,” Tipene said.
But this would be done on their terms. They would configure themselves for negotiations as they wanted to, not as the Government or anybody else might wish.
About 200 people packed the Whitiora Marae hui hosted by Ngāti Rēhia.
Goldsmith told those present the Government had ideas about how a settlement might happen. But his purpose at the hui was to listen.
The visit was his first with wider Ngāpuhi hapū.
Te Kotahitanga o ngā hapū Ngāpuhi chair Pita Tipene said it was important the Minister came to hear from Ngāpuhi hapū.
It was about the Government listening and not telling Ngāpuhi what was going to happen.
Goldsmith said the Government would like to see Ngāpuhi’s Treaty of Waitangi claims settled. He believed this would be a huge opportunity for the iwi.
Tipene said Ngapūhi hapū were looking to the future to find a positive way forward, rather than fighting among themselves.
He said he hoped the Minister would be open to processing Ngāpuhi claims in a way that aligned with that of Te Kotahitanga o ngā hapū Ngāpuhi.
A range of hapū spoke at today’s hui including from the mid-north and Whangārei.
Tipene said the Waitangi Tribunal had ruled Ngāpuhi had not ceded sovereignty when signing Te Tiriti of Waitangi or He Whakapuntanga.
He told Goldsmith that was Te Kotahitanga o ngā hapū Ngāpuhi’s firm position.
He was very clear that the movement forward to a Treaty claims solution was very firmly happening in this context.
This was despite the Prime Minister recently indicating the Government’s position to be otherwise.
Ngāti Hine leader Waihoroi Shortland said those working for a Ngāpuhi solution had faced years of successive changes in those holding the Ministerial Treaty Negotiations portfolio.
Hui speaker Roseanna Henare-Solomona told the Minister Ngāpuhi in Australia should not be lost sight of in terms of redress. Henare-Solomona splits her time between Northland and Australia.
Another hui speaker, Lee Harris, representing Hokianga hapū said working with conflicting views of who spoke for an area’s hapū was part of the process of moving forwards.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
