An apology and $177 million in financial redress as Ngāti Maniapoto settles with the Crown

Thursday, 11 November 2021

Ngāti Maniapoto has signed its Deed of Settlement with the Crown, bringing an end to a 30-year process. Video first published November 11 2021.

The signatures have finally inked the pages of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement which stands as a game changer for Ngāti Maniapoto.

The King Country iwi and the Crown announced they had signed their Deed of Settlement on Thursday ending three decades of research, reports, hui and negotiations.

Covid-19 restrictions meant the settlement was signed by the Minister of Treaty Negotiations Andrew Little in Wellington and by the Maniapoto Māori Trust Board members in their home bubbles.

Trust board chairman Keith Ikin said it was a significant day for the iwi.

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Maniapoto Māori Trust Board chairman Keith Ikin said the settlement will bring iwi and Crown agencies closer together to make important changes for the people.

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Minister of Treaty Negotiations Andrew Little signing the deed of settlement for Ngāti Maniapoto in Wellington.

“It’s the culmination of a journey that started 30 years ago when our families came together to start the engagement process through the Waitangi Tribunal.

“It’s also significant in the context of the history of our people, back to when European settlement came into the King Country, the experiences of our people at that time, the negotiations we had with the Crown at that time, through to completing the settlement today.”

Keith Ikin initialling the Deed of Settlement in Wellington in 2020. It was then presented to the iwi at various hui in 2021 and moved through to final signing by the iwi and the Crown in November.

The settlement package included financial redress worth about $177 million.

It would provide new relationship agreements with Crown agencies, transferring 36 sites back to Maniapoto as cultural redress and first right to purchase Crown land in the future.

The settlement would give recognition by the Crown of the Maniapoto story, the Treaty breaches and a formal apology for those breaches.

Ikin said many people had been involved in the Treaty process over the past 30 years.

“The settlement will be a game changer for us as a people,” Ikin said.

“We are no different to many other iwi around the country, we’ve got some significant challenges.

“But in the negotiations we have reshaped our relationship with Crown agencies. We no longer want our families to be just the recipient of Crown policies because clearly they have not worked over many generations.

“We think the solution for us is to be involved in a much stronger relationship with the Crown, in the design and structure of those policies, right through to implementation.”

That could involve the iwi having much more say in policies and initiatives around health, wellbeing, education, employment, housing and the environment for Maniapoto.

Creating more opportunities for iwi members to return home to the King Country was also important.

A bill will now be introduced and read three times in Parliament before being officially made a law.

Once legislated, all financial, commercial and cultural redress will be transferred to the post settlement governance entity, Te Nehenehenui Trust, which will manage the settlement.

“Work is underway to consider the charitable and commercial arms of the new organisation but the critical piece of work is setting out a five-year plan to give direction and purpose to the settlement.

“It’s important that it is driven by the people, so they have clear visibility over what’s going to happen over the coming years.”

The five-year plan would also hold the trust to account on its performance for the iwi.

Ikin said there would be a formal ceremony to mark the deed of settlement’s completion.

“We have a commitment from the Crown that they will front our people to sign our relationship agreement and to apologise in person for the actions of the Crown over previous generations.

“It is important to bring our people together to recognise the signing but only when it is safe to do so.”

Ikin said it had been a long journey and he commended whānau who had been committed to the process over the past three decades.

“At the forefront of our thoughts are those who committed to this settlement who are no longer with us today.

“No settlement will ever compensate for the mamae we have endured for many generations.

“We reflect on the courage and sacrifice of our tūpuna and the generations of our people who have gone before us.

“We held fast to our mana whakahaere and achieved a relationship with the Crown that reflected the expectations our forebears set out in their signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, within Te Ōhākī Tapu and within the Kawenata of 1903.”