2021 has been full of milestones for Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua.

After negotiations with the Crown, and with your overwhelming support following a vote, we have agreed upon an improved package with the Crown and signed a Deed of Settlement on 29 October 2021 at Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington.

Independent returning officers, Electionz, confirmed 68.02 percent of voters support the Trust signing the enhanced package on behalf of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua after a voting period in July and August 2021. Just months later, pen was put to paper.

The ceremony held in Wellington was intimate, due to COVID-19 restrictions. Just over 40 people from our iwi, including kuia and kaumatua, were able to attend. The gathering was much smaller than we anticipated and hoped for, and those who were in the room thought of those who could not be there – especially those who began our journey to settlement decades ago and are no longer with us.

 

Part of our settlement includes a Crown apology. Typically, the apology is delivered when the Deed of Settlement is signed. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions preventing us from being together to hear it, the Minister has agreed to travel to our rohe at a time that suits us so we can hear it together.

The apology will never heal the mamae of the past entirely. The apology signals a new dawn, a new era for our relationship as partners, and the beginning of a new journey.

The enhanced deal which our members voted overwhelmingly in favour of, and which we signed the Deed of Settlement for, includes:

  • Everything initialled in the agreed upon Deed of Settlement from 2018,
  • Increased financial redress which rises by $22 million to $115 million,
  • An amendment to the Crown’s apology redress to better acknowledge landlocked lands and the circumstances of the taking of land at Pouākani, and
  • An amendment to He Kawenata Hou to include focus on whānau at Mangakino.*

To read a short information booklet about the much-improved document, click here. Please note this document was sent out during the voting period. Voting has now closed.

During the voting process, the Settlement Trust also hosted some hui to talk about the settlement package and answer any questions our members had.  Eight were scheduled, but due to Covid-19 restrictions being introduced in August, only five were held. The final three in Christchurch, Wellington, and Masterton had to be cancelled.

 

 

Following our signing in 2021, an urgent Waitangi Tribunal hearing was held in November after claims by groups (not the Settlement Trust) were lodged. The groups included Rangitāne, who are alleging that the Crown broke promises by negotiating funds for Wairarapa Moana with the Settlement Trust.

The Tribunal later issued a decision which recommends, amongst other things, that the Crown postpones the introduction of the settlement legislation until certain litigation is completed and further processes are undertaken. The full decision of the Waitangi Tribunal can be found here.

Litigation will be taking place in the Supreme Court in 2022. This litigation which the Tribunal recommends should continue concerns resumption orders sought by Ngāi Tūmapūhia-ā-rangi for the return of the Ngāumu Forest and Wairarapa Moana Incorporation for the return of the Maraetai Dam land at Pouākani.

Our previous pānui, which can be found here on our website, have explained the legal process around the resumption orders and the litigation that followed. The Rangitāne litigation is a consequence of the latest enhanced Crown offer.

The Settlement Trust previously received this Tribunal decision and carefully considered its next steps. Trustees have also met to discuss what our future might look like, and what options lie ahead of us in 2022.