KEY POINTS:
Tears welled in the eyes of then Treaty Negotiations Minister Doug Graham as the pageantry of the day played out.
The haunting wail of kuia echoed among the hundreds gathered - giving voice to the emotion rippling through the crowd eager to take in the historic event.
It was 1995, and a nation watched, savouring the sense of hope and reconciliation the Tainui-Waikato settlement heralded.
Eleven years on the enthusiasm has gone, replaced by a desire for expedience and closure. The public mood seems clear; Treaty settlements must now end.
The Government has announced a 2008 deadline for new Treaty claims and a final settlement deadline of 2020.
Labour's decision came during a bidding war in the run-up to the 2005 election, with all the major parties promising tough policies to derail what many believe has become the Treaty "gravy train." National and New Zealand First vowed to have settlements completed by 2010.
As a result the country's main political parties were unusually united last month in support of the Maori Purposes Bill, which sets September 1, 2008 as the deadline for the lodging of Treaty claims. Only the Greens and the Maori Party opposed the legislation, which passed by 104 votes to nine.
But questions remain over the amount of work still to be done and the reluctance of some claimants to accept the deadline.
By last month more than 1330 claims had been lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal. They varied from major iwi groupings, to individual whanau, and broad issues including rights over flora and fauna.
The Office of Treaty Settlements is tasked with completing the process begun in the 1990s by the then National Government. With just 18 settlements worth around $792 million completed, the task ahead appears daunting.
Director Paul James however is confident the 2020 deadline is achievable and urges caution in drawing comparisons between the number of settlements and the number of claims.
The office favours full and comprehensive settlements with large natural groupings, allowing one settlement to resolve many outstanding claims.
The Te Arawa settlement signed in September this year for example covered 47 claims, and resolved in part 26 others.
Mr James says it is difficult to calculate how many claims have been settled, as some have multiple claimants, and overlap, but estimates that around 50 settlements are required to conclude the process.
It is understood around $500 million has been earmarked to settle the remaining claims, although Mr James refuses to be drawn on a figure.
He says with several claims now settled, benchmarks have been set for groups entering the negotiation process.
Mr James said: "What we have seen in the last 10 years is that momentum matters. When we started we were struggling to find groups to negotiate with. Now we have a large number of groups in active negotiations, and groups talking to us about how they are coming towards negotiations.
"Until we had some benchmarks there was a lot of confusion about what people would achieve through settlement. Now we have up to 20 settlements, many of them comprehensive. We have good information of what you can achieve and a timeframe in which you can achieve it."
The likely compensation claimants can expect is also influenced by three main criteria in reaching a settlement.
* The nature of the land loss - direct confiscation as in the case of Waikato Tainui, or through legislation such as the Public Works Act.
* The number of members within the tribal group negotiating the claim.
* The amount of land and or resources lost.
The more formulaic approach has also opened the door for groups to negotiate directly with the Crown, rather than have their grievance heard first by the Waitangi Tribunal.
This year a large hapu collective of Rotorua based iwi Te Arawa signed a deed of settlement with the Crown. The settlement was negotiated over a four-year period, and was the first to come from direct negotiations.
The settlement, which the Government says is worth $36 million and Te Arawa say is closer to $200 million, demonstrated that direct negotiations were quicker, and as some have cynically noted, more lucrative.
Maori Party Treaty spokesman Te Ururoa Flavell says the direct negotiation process demonstrates how symbolic the settlement process is.
He says tribunal hearings are designed to determine the nature of land and resources lost, and to offer Maori an avenue to have their history told and recorded.
Mr Flavell says the Government has shown that settlements have little to do with righting wrongs, but have become a simple regimented checklist offering little.
"Maori have been bullied into entering negotiations, only to find that the Government have determined not only what can be negotiated, but what can be expected."
He warns that the policy will mean Maori grievance will continue until a Government emerges with the spine to let justice be done.
His concerns are backed by several Maori groups who refuse to negotiate. Whanganui are one such iwi.
Iwi negotiator Ken Mair says Crown inflexibility and failure to involve iwi in determining the process will ensure that the new deadlines fail.
"The Government cannot legislate away our grievance. They have set the rules, and have arrogantly refused to involve their Treaty partner in the process. Our grievance will not disappear just because a date is reached."
Mr James accepts that some iwi are years away from even beginning the negotiation process and will have to wait their turn.
"There are some groups who are strongly opposed to our current settlement policies and processes. There is a real question about how they can be accommodated within that target of settling all claims of 2020," he said.
"Our focus is going to be on those who are prepared to negotiate. At the moment we are flooded with work."
It is now 11 years since the Waikato Tainui settlement was struck.
Chairman Tuku Morgan says the settlement process, though not offering fair compensation for Maori loss, has allowed the iwi the chance for some financial independence. "Settlements were not and never will be the fix ... to resolve the disproportionate social problems the loss of land and resources inflicted on Maori."
Tainui, he says, whose $170 million settlement has now swelled to an asset base of more than $370 million, can now provide money for marae and education and training grants for its more than 50,000 beneficiaries.
"The process is not fair, and compensation has little to do with what has been taken, but it has been a start, and has allowed the tribe the ability to have greater influence over our shared future."
