​An iwi blossoms - Ngāti Hinerangi take back their mana after signing a Deed of Settlement

Thursday, 23 May 2019

From the temperate oceanside of Tauranga Moana, over the shadows of the Kaimai Range Mountains and the native flowering trees of Pukehou, the people of Ngāti Hinerangi roamed in numbers.

During the days of the ancestors they lived and prospered on a land rich in resources. They travelled miles through lush bush and over cliff faces to trade kaimoana, huawhenua (vegetables), as well as fibres such as flax with their neighbouring iwi.

However, during the decades of colonisation and land wars, the people of Ngāti Hinerangi lost much of their land, forestry and access to waterways. Becoming virtually landless, the people of Ngāti Hinerangi sought,  refuge marrying into other iwi and taking their whakapapa with them.

Now the people of Ngāti Hinerangi are back to walking in the same footsteps of their ancestors after re-discovering their true identity as an iwi.

**READ MORE:

* Ngāti Hinerangi and Crown settle Treaty breaches

* Iwi lock in land deal at Marlborough Airport

* Anglican Church to apologise for takeover of Māori land in Bay of Plenty**

'Knowing all that important information about our iwi while no one else truly believed it, felt like being adopted out and then having to move to a different area and then before you know it the landscape has changed,' kāumatua Rawiri Thompson said.

The 73-year-old was one of few who knew that Ngāti Hinerangi wasn't a hapū (sub-tribe) of Ngāti Raukawa, but an established iwi before the process of the signing of the treaty started.

When he was younger he recalls sitting down around whānau while they told stories of what Ngāti Hinerangi used to be like and how they fought well in conflicts like the Battle of Gate Pā in Tauranga Moana.

He said his grandmother and parents grew up in Matamata, as did he, but he felt robbed that he never saw for himself what Ngāti Hinerangi used to be.

'We were landless. All we had was the land that our marae sat on and a few houses on Douglas Road, in Matamata and that was basically it.'

Ngāti Hinerangi Trust co-negotiator Dianna Vaimoso said the rebirth of Ngāti Hinerangi began in 2004 when one kaumātua said to a few whānau that Ngāti Hinerangi was bigger than what everyone believed.

'I don't believe that there were many people out there that understood where Ngāti Hinerangi stood, we are placed between Ngāti Hauā, Ngāti Raukawa, Tauranga Moana and Hauraki.

'I think what happened for us is that we had a lot of females and therefore a lot of males married in and we often took on their areas. This was great, but meant that we lost a lot of our own identity.'

However, this was only the very start of the process to re-establish Ngāti Hinerangi.

Through research the Māori Land Court proved their existence as an iwi. With the backing of the Waitangi Tribunal, they declared their mana motuhake (self-governance) in 2012. Then in 2014 the Crown recognised their mandate.

The challenge was that Ngāti Hinerangi sat between five established iwi, requiring the iwi to deal with several overlapping claims, Thompson said.

'It wasn't an easy task, we had to think back 40 or 50 years ago when our old people where there and thinking what would they do, how can we implement traditions today without making them up,' Thompson said.

'It was quite intimating to come along as a small iwi to these powerful entities, especially if you're landless and haven't reclaimed your whakatoki.'

After years of negotiation between Ngāti Hinerangi Trust and the Crown, in 2018 both parties finally came to an agreement about a redress package to offer to the people of Ngāti Hinerangi.

On March 5, 2019 the deed of settlement was signed during a ceremony at Te Ōhākī Marae in Ōkauia, Matamata, bringing to an end substantive negotiations.

'We've been very lucky that although our iwi was practically extinct there were still little bits that we could grab onto that historians were able to go back into and clarify for us,' said Vaimoso.

'I think another generation down the line and we would have lost everything.'

'With the signing of the treaty settlement the name changes to Te Puāwaitanga Ngāti Hinerangi, te puāwai means to blossom, so this is the blossoming of Ngāti Hinerangi.'

The settlement redress will include $8.1 million, a cultural revitalisation payment of $200,000, marae rebuild of $20,000, a crown apology and the transfer of five properties including land currently occupied by Manuwaru School and the Matamata Police Station.

The Deed of Settlement also provides for the vesting of 14 sites, including part of Wairere Falls, (Wairere Falls Scenic Reserve) which is considered a sacred waterfall to Ngāti Hinerangi.

'We all know that the Crown will never give an iwi back everything that was taken, and they can't because a lot of the land is privately owned and the Crown can't touch it at all, but Ngāti Hinerangi hopes to have gained enough to build a sustainable future,' said Vaimoso.

'Now we are able to hold our heads up high and still be proud of what we have accomplished.'

The overlapping claims process is something that has negatively affected the relationship between the Hauraki Collective and Tauranga iwi through Hauraki's treaty settlement negotiations.

But Ngāti Hinerangi will become the first iwi to co-govern land as well as gift some land to another iwi, something never seen before by the Crown.

'Ngāti Hinerangi has been given some land through the settlement in Tauranga Moana. Two pieces in particular are the tracks which run from the West to the Eastern side to Tauranga, the Te Tuhi Track and Te Ara o Maurihoro Track.'

Vaimoso said the iwi made an agreement with Tauranga Moana that they will co-govern the land.

Another block called Ngāti Hinerangi Waipapa is also in the Tauranga Moana area. Ngāti Hinerangi has decided that, when they receive it, they will gift it to Tauranga Moana iwi as a way to maintain a connection with the iwi and whānau.

'It's been a huge talking point for other iwi and certainly the Crown. In the old days if you wanted to create a bond with another iwi you would normally gift a virgin bride otherwise known as a puhi to the iwi. Of course we don't do that these days, but we thought we would work in the same way. We wouldn't gift a puhi but we would gift our land.

'It's been a mana enhancing process for all of us, where we will all walk away feeling happy about the process and I think the day we get that land back it will be a huge deal in the history of New Zealand.'

Hari Smith said he was very young when the treaty negotiations began, but remembers feeling this parents and grandparents excitement.

'When I was younger up until the age of 11, I never really knew about Ngāti Hinerangi at all. It wasn't until our kaumatua told us that I actually belong to this iwi on my grandma's side,' Smith said.

'When they started the treaty process I thought it was cool, but it wasn't until I got older that I realised the gravity of this situation.'

Now that the treaty has been settled, he said it's important to educate mokopuna and discover thier own customs and traditions.

'We are still re-learning our process and way of doing things, but what we do know is the history of our people.

'The fact that we came back when we did and managed to save what we have and turn it into something that breathes success is very awesome.

'The work that our trust has done for our settlement is not work or effects that we are going to see now or even in 10 or 15 years time. It's for those of us in future generations to see the fruits of the labor.'​​