Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu
Land Claims Report for June 2016
1. Progress with publication of Deed of Partial Settlement
2. The Monitoring Mechanism’s report for the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
3. Court of Appeal date for binding recommendations application set for 20 July
4. Minister of Treaty Negotiations still trying to extinguish Ngāti Kahu’s claims
5. Repossession of Kaitāia Airport in the District Court
6. Ngāti Kahu Trust Board Litigation Against Ngāti Kahu Mortgage Services
Summary
· Copy editing of our book Ngāti Kahu: Portrait of a Sovereign Nation, our Deed of Partial Settlement, is now complete and I am checking it all to make sure that the wording changes preserve the intended meaning.
· I will be attending the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ meeting in Geneva from 11-14 July as the chair of the Monitoring Mechanism of National Iwi Chairs Forum. We will present our report on the need for the government’s Treaty claims settlement process to be urgently reviewed and reformed.
· The Court of Appeal has set 20 July as the hearing date for our (and Mangatū Incorporation’s) appeals in respect of the Waitangi Tribunal not making binding recommendations.
· We have finally received a response to our November 2015 response to the Minister of Treaty Settlements’ demands that we do as he directs in respect of our treaty claims. Predictably, he has ignored the facts we provided and instead has attempted to instruct us to extinguish our claims in accordance with his requirements and to undergo an irrelevant mandating exercise.
· The hearing date for the six Patukōraha, Ngāi Tohianga and Te Paatu people arrested for trespassing on their own ancestral lands at Rangiāniwaniwa was discussed in a judicial teleconference on 26 May and a hearing is now likely at the end of October.
· The Rūnanga appointed two interim trustees for Ngāti Kahu’s farm at Taipā four months ago but have still not heard who the Ngāti Kahu Trust Board’s two appointees are.
1. Progress with publication of Deed of Partial Settlement
Copy editing of our book Ngāti Kahu: Portrait of a Sovereign Nation is now complete. I am working through it to check that the changes made to make sure that it reads smoothly have not interfered with the intended meaning. As I go through it I am adding the changes people asked me to make.
All but the last two of the photos have been finalized and the designer is very pleased with the result. The book cover is now being designed using the Theresa Reihana painting of Kahutianui.
2. The Monitoring Mechanism’s report for the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
I will be attending the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP)’s meeting in Geneva, Switzerland from 11-14 July as the chair of the Monitoring Mechanism of National Iwi Chairs Forum. I will be accompanied by Anthony Housham and Tracey Whare. Tracey has many years of experience and expertise working on Indigenous Peoples’ issues in the United Nations. She is currently helping me with the treaty claims settlements research project as well as being the Monitoring Mechanism’s technical advisor and an expert advisor to the EMRIP.
We will present our report on the need for the government’s Treaty claims settlement process to be urgently reviewed and reformed; its refusal to consult Māori about the TPPA and the refusal to allow Māori adequate decision making powers in local government.
The (part-time) Māori Human Rights Commissioner, Karen Johansen, is also attending and I am keeping in touch with her.
3. See the summary above.
4. Minister of Treaty Negotiations still trying to extinguish Ngāti Kahu’s claims
We have finally received a letter in response to our November 2015 response to the Minister of Treaty Settlements’ demands that we do as he directs in respect of our treaty claims.
The letter attempts to instruct the Rūnanga to change the mandate we currently hold in respect of Ngāti Kahu’s Tiriti o Waitangi claims. The current mandate requires the Rūnanga to pursue the claims as instructed by the whānau, hapū and marae of Ngāti Kahu and to represent only those who wish to be represented by the Rūnanga. The mandate restricts the Rūnanga to negotiating a partial settlement and to pursuing binding recommendations for the return of all State Owned Enterprises and Crown Forest lands through the Waitangi Tribunal.
The Minister’s letter instructs that the mandate must be to represent all hapū of Ngāti Kahu including those who do not wish to be represented by the Rūnanga. It also instructs that the mandate must be restricted to extinguishing all Ngāti Kahu claims in the manner directed by the Minister, that is, the Rūnanga must negotiate a full and final settlement. It then instructs the Rūnanga to embark on a government determined and approved mandating process once the 20 July hearing in the Court of Appeal is completed.
If Ngāti Kahu was currently in negotiations with the government or attempting to enter negotiations then the Minister’s letter might be relevant. The government requires those who negotiate to hold a mandate that it defines and approves. However the government’s mandate requirements are irrelevant for those pursuing claims in the Waitangi Tribunal. Ngāti Kahu is in the Waitangi Tribunal, not in negotiations with the government. The High Court has ordered the Waitangi Tribunal to rehear Ngāti Kahu’s application for binding recommendations and that’s what we are doing.
So this letter from the Minister is a transparent and rather cheeky attempt stop us pursuing litigation in the courts and binding recommendations from the Waitangi Tribunal.
For Items 5 – 6 please see the summary above.
Professor Margaret Mutu
19 June 2016