Encircled Lands – In the News Today

18 May 2010

PRESS RELEASE: ENCIRCLED LANDS, TE UREWERA 1820-1921 by Judith Binney

Encircled Lands – In the News Today

This week, Prime Minister John Key pulled the plug on the idea of Tuhoe ownership of the Urewera National Park – a remarkable step in Maori-Crown relations that has emerged during the current negotiations over Tuhoe's Treaty settlement.

Judith Binney’s Encircled Lands: Te Urewera 1820-1921 tells the story of Tuhoe’s struggle for sovereignty in their lands – a history central to the present negotiations, as the Hon. Chris Finlayson, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, acknowledged at the time of publication (December 2009).

History is repeating itself

In 1896, the Urewera District Native Reserve Act gave the Urewera people the means for internal self-government; this significant piece of legislation was based on the relationships of Urewera hapu with Donald McLean as Native Minister and (later) Richard Seddon as Prime Minister.

Twenty years later, in 1922, the Act was repealed; Crown purchases throughout the Urewera were ratified; and Te Rohe Potae o Te Urewera was brought under general law.

On that occasion, Parliament recorded no discussion of the implication of removing Tuhoe’s rangatiratanga, nor of ending the ‘experiment’ in tribal self-government.

Today may be different...

We have arrived again at a crucial point in New Zealand history. The evidence is powerful, but will the voices of the Urewera this time be heard?

Judith Binney’s magisterial account of Tuhoe’s dispossession at the hands of a colonial government bears directly on the issues of today.

ENDS

[Media release: Encircled Lands: Te Urewera 1820–1921 By J Binney]

© Scoop Media