Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu
Land Claims Report for August 2020
1. Waitangi Tribunal – preparing claims for hearing
2. National Iwi Chairs Forum hui 6-7 August, Ōtaki
Summary
• The Waitangi Tribunal has set down 27 November for the next judicial conference.
• National Iwi Chairs Forum’s hui on 6-7 August in Ōtaki was well attended.
1. Waitangi Tribunal – preparing claims for hearing
An increasing number of people who have taken up the call from the Tribunal for everyone throughout Te Hiku o Te Ika to have their claims heard after Ngāti Kahu applied to have our application for binding recommendations for Ngāti Kahu lands reheard. Over the past month, lawyers acting for a large number of claims have made submissions to the Tribunal. As a result, Judge Wainwright has instructed that the next judicial conference will take place on Friday, 27 November 2020 at Taipa.
Her instructions are that the judicial conference will address:
a) the Outlines of Claims to be filed in October 2020 and the scope of the inquiry;
b) the existing evidence, whether more is required, and the scope and scale of any further research; and
c) the legal status of Dame Evelyn Stokes’s work in this inquiry, if the claims extend past 1865 (Wai 45, #R8).
2. National Iwi Chairs Forum hui 6-7 August, Ōtaki
Fifteen kui, kaumātua and kaimahi of Ngāti Kahu attended the Forum’s hui in Ōtaki. It was well attended and beautifully hosted, even though we received the papers very late again.
The Human Rights Commission attended asking that they partner with the Forum so that the Commission can become a Treaty Based Organisation. The Forum agreed to that request. We also agreed to the Commission working together with Pou Tangata on their housing project. Pou Tikanga’s Aotearoa2020Vision project collected video clips of people’s vision for the country as part of the Constitutional Transformation work. The Data Iwi Leaders Group is continuing to work with Statistics NZ after successfully negotiating a work programme that mandates mana Māori motuhake.
They are hopeful of achieving a second agreement with the Department of Internal Affairs. Pou Tāhua is continuing its work on housing, addressing the Wai 262 Flora, Fauna and Intellectual Property claim, banking possibilities and tourism that has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the second wave hitting the week after the hui, the Forum’s Pandemic Response Group has been reactivated.
Three Ministers joined the hui by zoom. We endured the self-justification of the Minister of Children, Tracey Martin, for the abysmal record of Oranga Tamariki, the impatience of the Minister of Māori-Crown Relations, Kelvin Davis, who ‘had another meeting to go to’ and the Minister of Māori Development, Nanaia Mahuta, avoiding discussion of the Working Group report on implementing UNDRIP that she refuses to release.
Professor Margaret Mutu
24 August 2020