Members of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki nui-a-Rua left Dannevirke early Tuesday morning to hear the reading of the Claims Settlement Bill in Parliament. Photo / Dave Murdoch
Members of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki nui-a-Rua left Dannevirke early Tuesday morning to hear the reading of the Claims Settlement Bill in Parliament. Photo / Dave Murdoch
A Bill which will give effect to a deed of settlement signed last year went for its third reading in Parliament on Tuesday.
The train taking Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki nui-a-Rua to Wellington for the reading in Parliament. Photo / Dave Murdoch
About 200 people from Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki nui-a-Rua left on a chartered train to travel to Wellington for the reading.
The deed of settlement between theCrown and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua (Ngāti Kahungunu) which would settle remaining historical Treaty of Waitangi claims of Ngāti Kahungunu, was signed in October 2021.
According to Parliamentary documents, part one of the bill recorded acknowledgements and apologies offered by the Crown and included a summary of historical background to the claims.
That history included the forced cession of land, failure to obtain consent of key rights-holders in land purchases, and purchase of land in both regions which destroyed lease economy.
“The Crown’s apology also addresses the failure of the Crown to provide many of the education, health and economic benefits which Ngāti Kahungunu had been led to expect as the true payment for their land, and the failure to give suitable lakeside reserves in exchange for the tuku rangatira (chiefly gifting) of the Wairarapa lakes in 1896,” the report from the Maori Affairs committee stated.
Part two of the bill provided for cultural redress including issuing of a Crown minerals protocol, taonga tūturu protocol and geographic name changes, while part three set out commercial redress, including provision for transfer of commercial properties.
Cape Turnagain is the northern point of the Ngati Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua area.
The report stated the iwi had a population of around 12,000 and consisted of two of the six regions that made up the iwi, spanning an area from Cape Turnagain in the north to Cape Palliser in the south.
