The Green Party has welcomed today’s anouncement of an agreement for the future of land at Ihumātao as a good first step towards healing the historic injustice of land confiscation at the site.

Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today:

“I am hopeful that this process can go some way to healing the pain caused by the wrongful confiscation of this land from mana whenua in 1863,” Marama Davidson said.

“The Crown has a moral obligation to fund the purchase of this land today, given it dispossessed the mana whenua of this land in the first place.

“We cannot have true justice today, or purport to care about property rights, unless we acknowledge our history and the injustice of past land confiscations.

“I am proud to have stood alongside mana whenua on Ihumātao from the beginning and supported their right to peacefully protect their land.

“Today I spoke to members of SOUL and acknowledged the courage of mana whenua and many other activists who have maintained a watchful presence on this land for the last five years,” said Marama Davidson.

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