East coast iwi reject settlement law

East Coast iwi Ruawaipu are opposed to the recently enacted Ngati Porou Claims Settlement Act which removes the jurisdiction of the Waitangi Tribunal from hearing Ruawaipu claims. Ruawaipu claimant Henry Koia stresses that Ruawaipu were here long before the arrival of the Ngati Porou migrants and that Ruawaipu did not cede their sovereignty to the British.

“Both the government and Ngati Porou did not like the tone of Ruawaipu claims which posed a direct threat to Crown sovereignty and Ngati Porou’s claims of mana whenua” said Mr Koia. If this is the case, then legislating away Ruawaipu’s right to a Tribunal hearing would appear to suit the settlement parties as a convenient means of defusing those threats.

Mr Koia presses his point that it is no longer about Treaty grievances. “Now we are talking about the government’s abuse of our human rights. The settlement Act abuses our right to justice contained in the Bill of Rights Act, and legalizes the illegitimate transfer of our lands to another people in violation of the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples” he said.

Mr Koia warns other iwi of the emergence of a pattern within the government’s settlement program based on the East Coast template. “They apply their policy of settling with large natural groupings to suit themselves. Winners are chosen and accorded government backing while the protests of vulnerable iwi like Ruawaipu are ignored” said Mr Koia.

Mr Koia advocates that systemic abuses of Maori rights is a symptom of an underlying problem. “The problem is that we lack a Maori rights protectorate mechanism within our constitutional arrangements with the power to veto bad law such as this Act” he said.

Mr Koia intends to call a tribal meeting to discuss the implications of the settlement Act for Ruawaipu and proposes to table a draft declaration for ratification by the iwi. “I will be asking my people to declare their refusal to recognize the Ngati Porou settlement Act as legally valid, and to declare our Treaty grievances against the British Crown as unresolved” he said.

As a consequence of those declarations, Mr Koia will seek tribal resolutions that Ruawaipu fight the government until justice is seen to be done; to submit a formal human rights complaint to the UN; and drive the establishment of a Maori Protectorate. “They thought the Act would floor Ruawaipu. Instead, we’re just putting on the gloves” said Mr Koia.

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