Rapua ngā tuhinga ruku tātari

Two reports were prepared by the Tribunal on claims relating to the September 2006 deed of settlement between the Crown and the iwi/hapu of Te Arawa affiliated to Nga Kaihautu o Te Arawa, a body mandated to negotiate the settlement of the historical claims of approximately half of Te Arawa. The Tribunal panel comprised Judge Caren Fox, Peter Brown, the Honourable Douglas Kidd, and Tuahine Northover.

The claimants alleged that the proposed Kaihautu settlement would prejudice their interests by transferring to affiliate groups cultural and commercial redress assets in which they had interests. The Tribunal’s first report dealt with claims on cultural redress, the second with commercial redress. The two reports were published together in a single volume.

The claims discussed in these reports were brought by: Te Arawa groups who chose not to be represented by the Kaihautu; Te Arawa groups who disputed the mandate of the Kaihautu to represent them; and (in the second report) central North Island iwi outside the Te Arawa confederation whose interests were affected by the commercial redress terms of the proposed settlement.

The Report on the Impact of the Crown’s Treaty Settlement Policy on Te Arawa Waka

The first report dealt with cultural redress aspects of the settlement. The Tribunal examined the processes by which the Crown, during the Kaihautu negotiations, communicated with and gathered information from groups whose interests overlapped those of affiliate iwi/hapu. It found that these processes were seriously flawed, and that the Crown had failed to protect the interests of overlapping groups in the cultural redress sites offered to the Kaihautu.

The Tribunal recommended that the Crown undertake to vary the settlement to recognise the customary interests of certain non-affiliate groups with particular cultural redress sites. It also recommended that the statutory acknowledgement in respect of the Rotorua regional geothermal system should apply to the entire Te Arawa waka, and that the Minister of Maori Affairs should annually review the development of policy advice within the Office of Treaty Settlements.

In respect of the claimants who disputed their representation by the Kaihautu, the Tribunal recommended that before the legislation is introduced, the Crown facilitate hui-a-hapu to gauge their support for the Kaihautu mandate once and for all.

The Final Report on the Impact of the Crown’s Treaty Settlement Policies on Te Arawa Waka and Other Tribes

The second report dealt with the major commercial redress element in the Kaihautu settlement: the transfer of approximately 51,000 hectares of Crown forestry licensed land to the affiliate iwi/hapu. The Tribunal found several failures by the Crown to protect the interests of overlapping claimants during its negotiations with the Kaihautu.

First, the Crown had failed to engage fully and robustly with overlapping claimant groups during its negotiations with Kaihautu. The Tribunal considered that the interests of claimants had been put at risk as a result of this failure.

Next, the Tribunal found inadequacies in the Crown’s approach to assessing the sufficiency and appropriateness of the Crown forestry land remaining after the Kaihautu settlement for use in future Treaty settlements with other central North Island iwi.

The Tribunal also found that the Crown had breached the Treaty by including in the deed provision for it to receive the accumulated rentals associated with certain Crown forestry lands included in the settlement. The Tribunal had grave concerns regarding the impact of the settlement on overlapping iwi and on the durability of future central North Island settlements. However, it also recognised that the affiliate iwi/hapu of Te Arawa had done nothing wrong and deserved their settlement.

The Tribunal therefore recommended that the proposed settlement be delayed pending the outcome of a forum of central North Island iwi and other affected groups. The aim of this forum would be to negotiate between participants, according to tikanga, high-level guidelines for the allocation of Crown forest lands. The Tribunal considered that truly durable Treaty settlements would grow out of such a process.