Ngati Whatua Signs Preliminary Agreements

News Release
Embargoed until 6am February 12, 2010

Ngati Whatua o Orakei Signs Preliminary Settlement Agreements

Ngati Whatua o Orakei will sign two agreements with the Crown today.

The first is a Supplementary Agreement In Principle that amends certain provisions in the Agreement In Principle (AIP) signed in 2006. The second is a collective agreement along with 11 other iwi in the wider Auckland region. That collective agreement involved ownership of maunga and a collective Right of First Refusal (RFR).

Ngati Whatua o Orakei Maori Trust Board Chair Grant Hawke says they are the best outcome that could have been negotiated given the changes in the way the Crown opted to negotiate Treaty settlements in late 2007.

Hawke says those changes followed the Wainwright decision that said the Crown should be negotiating collectively and not with individual iwi, and also the CNI (Central North Island or ‘Tree Lords Deal’) agreement that was collective and regional.

“What is important to understand about this deal is that it is not about the Crown restoring our mana because it was and is always with us. This settlement is about the Crown recognising its mistakes following its breaches of the Treaty agreements it made with us.

“No piece of legal description can override our mana and our connection with our maunga.

“Our mana can never, has never and will never be taken from us. Our mana is who we are, it comes to us through our tupuna and it is not something that leaves us or returns to us.”

He says the terms of this new set of agreements is neither worse nor better than what they previously had.

“What I have come to see, however, is that over time the benefits of these new agreements will place Ngati Whatua o Orakei in a much stronger position in the Auckland region than would have been the case if the collective agreements had not been in place.“

Hawke says in terms of the quantum, instead of the $8 million the hapu agreed to receive in 2006 it will now receive $18 million with interest included. The arrangement to purchase the naval residential land at Devonport is unchanged from the 2006 AIP.

“Under the 2006 AIP we had exclusive ownership of Maungawhau/Mt Eden, Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill and Puketapapa/Mt Roskill. However this has changed under the new agreements so that we now share ownership of these three maunga with all 11 other iwi in what is called the Tamaki Collective. We also share with them ownership of eigῨt other maunga throughout the Auckland region.

He says this creates an opportunity to put in place a comprehensive protection programme for all maunga including Maungawhau, Maungakiekie and Puketapapa so they are protected and recognised at a much higher level.

“This allows us to fulfil our kaitiaki responsibility for our ancestral maunga and we are able to pass on our 19 years of experience in co-management of significant sites to Auckland City and the collective.“

The Supplementary AIP also brings exclusive ownership of the Purewa Creek Reserve – the 31 hectare reserve occupied by the St Heliers Bay Pony Club. This will simply be added to the Whenua Rangatira Reserve the hapu has owned and co-managed with the Auckland Council since 1991.

“As far as the RFR is concerned we are now part of a group that can get first right of refusal for the sale of any Government land from Long Bay to Muriwai to Port Waikato to Miranda. We are pleased about that.”

Another benefit in the Supplementary AIP that was not in the 2006 AIP is the potential to explore the purchase of land under Mt Eden Prison.

“Most important of all, our historical account that outlines the transgressions of the Crown against our tupuna who fought as best they could to hold on to our land remains intact.”

Hawke says the negotiating team now goes into the next round of negotiation to nail down the fine detail that will lead to the broad terms set out in the original AIP and supplementary agreement being turned into a Deed of Settlement.

“We hope that can be concluded this year, but, before a Deed of Settlement can be signed we will take the full details to our hapu who will need to vote on the agreements we have reached.”

ends