Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu
Land Claims Report for July 2012
1. Hearing our application for binding recommendations 3 – 7 September, Karepōnia marae
2. Judicial conference on applications for urgent hearings against Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa and Ngāi Takoto Deeds of Settlement
3. Crown and other iwi attempt to remove Te Kani Williams
4. On-going preparation of Briefs of Evidence for Hearing our Remedies (Binding
Recommendations) application
5. Notifications to current occupiers of 27B memorialized lands – Crown orchestrating a backlash
SUMMARY
The hearing for our application for binding recommendations will take place at
Karepōnia marae starting on 3 September and will run for five days. Lloyd
Pōpata is working with Karepōnia marae to help with the organizing.
The Judicial Conference on our applications for urgent hearings against the deeds
of settlement of Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa and Ngāi Takoto (to decide whether there
will be a hearing) took place in Auckland on 17 July. We are awaiting the
Tribunal’s decision.
The Crown, with the support of Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa and Ngāi Takoto, is attempting to remove Te Kani Williams as Ngāti Kahu’s legal representative claiming he has a conflict of interest.
Briefs of evidence for the remedies hearing have been contracted from an historian, a medical doctor, two valuers and an economist.
The Crown is attempting to use the fact that it must notify occupiers of 27B memorialized land that a Waitangi Tribunal hearing is up-coming to orchestrate a backlash against Ngāti Kahu.
1. Hearing our application for binding recommendations 3-7 September,
Karepōnia marae
The hearing for binding recommendations will now take place at Karepōnia marae (SH10, Awanui) rather than Kēnana marae as reported last month. Lloyd Pōpata is working with Karepōnia as Ngāti Kahu’s contact and liaison person with the Waitangi Tribunal.
2. Judicial Conference on applications for urgent hearings
against Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa and Ngāi Takoto Deeds of Settlement, 17 July
This Judicial Conference was held in the Environment Court in Auckland.
A number of Ngāti Kahu hapū representatives were able to attend to watch the
Crown and the other iwi’s negotiators fight desperately to stop Ngāti Kahu
being able to challenge their Deeds of Settlement.
Before the conference, Lloyd Pōpata, Te Karaka Karaka (Hully Clarke), Bernard Butler and I had filed extensive briefs of evidence responding to the Crown’s and the three iwi’s objections to our applications against their deeds of settlement. We demonstrated clearly that Ngāti Kahu has mana whenua at Hukatere, Te Oneroa-ā-Tōhē, Kaimaumau, Te Make (Sweetwater), Tangonge, Ōkahu and Takahue.
The only way the Crown and the other iwi can combat the level of knowledge of mana whenua we provided is to pretend it doesn’t exist. As such the Crown and Te Aupōuri fought to have the Tribunal remove most of our evidence from the record.
The Tribunal’s main concern was whether the Deeds of Settlement will cause significant and irreversible prejudice to Ngāti Kahu. We have argued that they are because they include large areas of Ngāti Kahu land and vest them in other iwi, ignoring that they are Ngāti Kahu’s lands too. The other iwi argued that we had plenty of opportunity to have a say but chose not to so the other iwi decided that they and the Crown would decide how Ngāti Kahu’s interests would or would not be
recognized. In fact, as we pointed out, we did have our say. We gave the Crown and the other iwi our Deed of Partial Settlement and told them repeatedly, in the Forum while we were there, in letters and in emails, not to include a number of Ngāti Kahu lands in the deeds of those iwi. Both the Crown and the iwi ignored Ngāti Kahu which is why we have made this application.
Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa and Ngāi Takoto praised the Crown repeatedly for doing a marvelous job in settling their claims and fully supported all its attacks on Ngāti Kahu. They also said that the iwi have to be extremely grateful that the Crown is now allowing them to buy their own land back off them. Te Aupōuri went as far as saying all the land the Crown stole rightfully belongs to the Crown and that customary title has all been extinguished. That essentially says that Te Aupōuri does not agree with the Waitangi Tribunal’s finding that the Crown had not been able to prove it held title to any of the lands and that the underlying native(/customary) title was therefore not extinguished. As such all those lands still belong to the hapū they were stolen from.
We did not get through everything in the Judicial Conference so our lawyers will be filing written responses this week. Then we wait for the Tribunal’s decision on whether our applications go to hearing.
3. Crown and other iwi attempt to remove Te Kani Williams
As we fully expected, the Crown is playing very dirty in order to get its own way and stop our application for binding recommendations, as well as the one against the deeds of settlement. It is asking the Tribunal to ban Te Kani Williams from representing Ngāti Kahu before the Tribunal. It claims he has a conflict of interest. The reason they give is that he was legal advisor to Te Hiku Forum, that is, the negotiators for each of the five iwi, while Ngāti Kahu was part of it. Now, three of those iwi have joined the Crown to fight against Ngāti Kahu. The Crown is fully
supported in trying to ban Te Kani by Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa and Ngāi Takoto. Te
Kani provided extensive help to those iwi but resigned when they started talking about throwing Ngāti Kahu out of the Forum. The Waitangi Tribunal has asked Te Kani to put his side of that matter before it makes a decision on whether it will stop him appearing for Ngāti Kahu.
It is appropriate to recall at this point that some of our kuia have been advising us for some time now that we should stop helping the other iwi with their claims against the Crown. One of the iwi warned us last year about the other iwi were discussing how to remove Ngāti Kahu’s negotiators so we were not surprised when it was formally requested.
4. On-going preparation of Briefs of Evidence for Hearing our Remedies (Binding
Recommendations) application
As part of our preparation for the binding recommendations hearing in September, we have contracted several expert reports on aspects of our claims. We have contracted:
a) An historian to summarise the evidence presented to the Waitangi Tribunal of the prejudice suffered by Ngāti Kahu as a result of the Crown’s actions or inactions between 1840 and 1865.
b) Dr Lance O’Sullivan is providing evidence of the shocking state of health that
Ngāti Kahu endures in our own territories.
c) Two valuers: one to value the lands with 27B memorials on their titles and Crown
forest lands in our rohe; the other to value the trees in Te Aupōuri forest (because we are entitled to compensation to the value of the trees). We have already had the trees valued once and that was in 2004. However we are being required to value them again.
d) An economist to calculate the extent and cost of the damage done to Ngāti Kahu
between 1840 and 1865.
Each of these experts will appear before the Tribunal in the September hearings to answer questions arising from their reports.
5. Notifications to current occupiers of 27B memorialized lands
The Waitangi Tribunal has directed the Crown to notify all present title holders of
27B memorialised lands within Ngāti Kahu’s rohe that the Waitangi Tribunal will be holding a hearing in September to consider which of those lands are to be ordered to be returned. A final date for notification has yet to be decided.
It will be interesting to see what the reaction is from the Crown and the 27B memorial holders.