CROWN VERSUS NGĀTI KAHU

On 17^th July, the Waitangi Tribunal held a Judicial Conference at the Environment Court in Auckland to consider Ngāti Kahu’s application for urgent hearings into the Crown’s deeds of settlement with Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa and Ngāitakoto; insofar as they prejudice the interests of Ngāti Kahu.  Unlike previous conferences which have been held in Wellington, a number of Ngāti Kahu hapū representatives were able to attend this time to watch and hear the Crown and the other iwi’s lawyers fight desperately to stop Ngāti Kahu being able to challenge the Crown’s deeds. 

Before the conference, Lloyd Pōpata, Te Karaka Karaka (Hully Clarke), Bernard Butler, Yvonne Puriri and Margaret Mutu had filed extensive briefs of evidence responding to the Crown’s and the three iwi’s objections to the application, and demonstrating 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 Ngāti Kahu provided is to pretend it doesn’t exist. As such their lawyers fought to have the Tribunal remove most of Ngāti Kahu’s evidence from the record.

The Tribunal’s main concern is whether the Crown’s deeds will cause significant and irreversible prejudice to Ngāti Kahu. Ngāti Kahu argued that they will because they vest large areas of land in other iwi, ignoring that they are Ngāti Kahu’s lands too. The other iwi’s lawyers argued that Ngāti Kahu had plenty of opportunity to have a say but chose not to; so they and the Crown decided how Ngāti Kahu’s interests would or would not be recognized. In fact, as Ngāti Kahu pointed out, it did have its say and had repeatedly told the Crown and its allies not to include Ngāti Kahu lands in their deeds. But they had chosen to ignore Ngāti Kahu, which is why the application had been made.

During the conference the other iwi lawyers praised the Crown repeatedly for doing a marvellous job in settling their clients’ claims and fully supported all its attacks on Ngāti Kahu. They also said that their clients are extremely grateful that the Crown is now allowing them to buy their own land back off it. Te Aupōuri’s lawyers 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 they do 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.

Ngāti Kahu did not get through everything in the Judicial Conference, so its lawyers filed written responses last week. Now everyone is waiting for the Tribunal’s decision on whether the application will go to hearing.