Final Waitangi Tribunal hearings start at Raukawa in Ōtaki

Ngāti Korokī is the last hapū to be heard by the Waitangi Tribunal.

Ngāti Korokī, the last hapū to be heard by the Waitangi Tribunal, says the three Ngāti Raukawa hapū around Ōtaki township are among the most landless in the Manawatū to Porirua district.

The week 16 hearings at Raukawa Marae, Ōtaki will run from June 4-7. It includes claims affecting all five Ōtaki hapū such as on rights relating to the Ōtaki River, a claim on the Crown’s Marine Parade beachfront land, papakāinga housing and the management of multiple ownership of Māori land.

Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga (covering Manawatū, Horowhenua and Kāpiti regions) is the last iwi in Aotearoa to have a district hearing on historical claims. This process has taken four years, but the original Wai 113 claim was lodged 35 years ago.

Gabrielle Rikihana, 97, a claimant for Ngāti Korokī, says the hapū of Ōtaki have suffered exceptional land loss, especially the three central hapū: Ngāti Pare, Ngāti Maiotaki and Ngāti Korokī.

Raukawa Marae, Otaki will host the Waitangi Tribunal from June 4-7.

“We have virtually no land of commercial value. Alongside Ngāti Pareraukawa and Ngāti Hikitanga, we are the most landless hapū of the inquiry district.”

Ngāti Korokī are making the claim that government land reforms, local government laws, and a biased borough rating programme, caused the hapū to lose their land, homes, and the control of the town they had created.

Matiu Rikihana, Ngāti Korokī co-chair and claimant, says the Government “deliberately moved us from our tūrangawaewae, the home we had developed for ourselves”.

“Depriving us of our land and self-governance meant we lost huge portions of land including Haruātai Park, Ōtaki Primary School, and Ōtaki College. Many papakāinga along Mill Rd were also taken because of unaffordable rates,” he says.

Ngāti Korokī claimant and co-chair Mishy Rikihana-Vieira adds that before large numbers of Europeans arrived, the hāpū of Ōtaki governed themselves and were progressive, enterprising, and industrious.

“We built our own town with Rangiātea Church, a school, boarding house, wharenui and flour mill created through our collective efforts.

“We seek the return of our whenua and the ability to set up papakāinga. We have fought to maintain our mana motuhake but today manawhenua struggle to have land, homes or to even afford to rent in Ōtaki. We are claiming for the return of the former Ōtaki maternity hospital and surrounding land.”