Resetting Marutūāhu Settlement

Ngāti Paoa have formally announced they will not be initialling the Marutūāhu Collective Deed of Settlement at this point in time. If Ngāti Paoa does not initial by this Friday 10 August, the commercial structures and allocation of assets are effectively reset according to letters received by Ngāti Paoa from the Minister for Treaty Settlements.

“Our decision not to initial the Marutūāhu Deed at this point in time, is to allow us to reach agreement on the allocation and governance arrangements for the commercial redress. This is significant for our whānau of Ngāti Paoa because it enables us to reaffirm the ancestral footprint we have in Auckland. In particular, it recognises that Ngāti Paoa have the most significant interests in Tāmaki of all the Marutūāhu Iwi. Whilst we are part of the collective, Ngāti Paoa is the Iwi that established itself and settled in Tāmaki whilst the others remained based in Hauraki. They have interests in Tāmaki because of their ties to Ngāti Paoa through kinship. They did not have any significant land holdings or have ahi kā and that’s reflected in our individual Iwi settlements.” said Morehu Wilson, mandated Iwi Negotiator for Ngāti Paoa.

“It is great that the Minister is supportive of a Tikanga process. This can initiate the discussion among us to sit down with all the Iwi of Marutūāhu and our Kaumātua and begin to engage in a Tikanga process. Allocation of assets among the Marutūāhu Iwi can then be appropriately based on what is tika, pono and aroha.”

Commercial Chair, Ngāti Paoa Group Investments Ltd, Brett Rhind said “We applaud the wisdom of the Minister to initial the Marutūāhu Deed to lock in the assets but leaving it to Iwi to reach agreement on how the assets are to be allocated and what is the appropriate commercial structure and governance arrangements to receive, manage and administer those assets.”

“We were encouraged by the Letter from the Minister as it gave us an opportunity to in the Minister’s words to ‘refresh negotiations’ on the commercial redress.” Said Brett Rhind.

In the meantime, Ngāti Paoa are currently investigating an interim structure to hold the assets in trust while Iwi of Marutūāhu continue to negotiate agreement on the allocation and appropriate governance structure and arrangements.

ENDS

© Scoop Media