Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu Land Claims Portfolio
Report for September 2017
1. Waitangi Tribunal judicial conference 9 October to prepare for full hearing for binding recommendations
2. Publication date for the Ngāti Kahu book – early December
3. Third annual cultural exchange to Shanghai
4. Repossession of Kaitāia Airport – appeal to High Court
Summary
• A judicial conference to prepare for the full hearing next year for binding recommendations will take place at the Ramada Resort, Taipā on 9 October. We have continued the research into the lands that the Tribunal can order to be returned.
• For our book, Ngāti Kahu: Portrait of a Sovereign Nation, Huia Publishers has advised that they have sent it overseas for printing. They expect the completed book to be available from the end of November. It can be pre-ordered now from the publisher.
• The third annual cultural exchange to Shanghai took place between 31 August and 8 September and once again, was very successful.
• The hearing of the appeal to the High Court against the decision of the Kaitāia District Court on the repossession of Rangiāniwaniwa took place on 13 September in Whāngārei. We are awaiting the decision.
1. Waitangi Tribunal judicial conference 9 October to prepare for full hearing for binding recommendations
The Waitangi Tribunal will hold a judicial conference on Monday 9 October at the Ramada Resort, Taipā, commencing at 9.30am. It has also set down Tuesday 10 October in case the extra time is required.
The purpose of the judicial conference is to hear from the lawyers for Ngāti Kahu and for the interested parties about what the full hearing for binding recommendations should cover and how that should be done. The Tribunal is calling that hearing “the rehearing of the Ngāti Kahu Remedies Application”. The Tribunal has given all the lawyers a number of legal questions to answer.
The Tribunal also directed that all the lands available to Ngāti Kahu through binding recommendations be identified. The Tribunal needs this information because the Crown sold large areas of Ngāti Kahu’s lands to other iwi. A list of lands provided to us by the Office of Treaty Settlements was missing a large number of blocks of land in our rohe that we had listed in 2012 (from expert work we contracted in 2006). We provided them with the full list of all lands. The Crown Law Office and the Office of Treaty Settlements are now fighting to stop the lands it has dropped off the list from being included in what can be returned to Ngāti Kahu.
2. Publication date for the Ngāti Kahu book – early December
Huia Publishers has advised that they have sent our book Ngāti Kahu: Portrait of a Sovereign Nations overseas for printing. They expect the completed book to be available at the end of November or by mid-December at the latest. It can be pre-ordered now from the publisher’s website http://www.huia.co.nz/huia-bookshop/bookshop/ngati-kahu-portrait-of-a-so.... The cost is $65.
At our Rūnanga hui on 7 October we will discuss the launching of our book.
3. Third annual Cultural Exchange to Shanghai
The 2017 Cultural Exchange delegation to Shanghai from 31 August to 8 September was another great success. The delegation was made up of me as the head, our commercial team of Anahera Herbert-Graves, Bardia Matiu, Te Kani Williams, Tony Walden and Deanne Wolferstan, and our cultural ambassadors Te Ikanui Kingi-Waiaua and Shannon Warwick. Jackson Su from Carrington accompanied us as our interpreter.
Once again, we were treated to exceptional hospitality. We visited many places and events of great cultural, social and commercial importance – and walked many miles doing so! We met twice with Shanghai CRED’s leader, Mr Gui, who once again assisted us by providing investment advice and with accessing advice for our fisheries company.
He also reiterated how important these relationship-building exercises are and the huge progress made in that regard. We are greatly indebted to Jackson Su who went to extra lengths to ensure that our messages and discussions were accurately conveyed, particularly to Mr Gui.
For item 4, please see the summary above.
Professor Margaret Mutu
01 October 2017