Northland iwi happy to defer sovereignty challenge

Northland iwi say they will challenge the Crown's sovereignty in Waitangi Tribunal hearings, and are happy to wait until March to present their evidence.

Presiding officer Judge Craig Coxhead has postponed hearings which were to have started in October.

The Herald understands the delay is to ensure all groups are ready for the intensive hearing.

Tribes such as Ngapuhi and Ngati Hine, which see themselves as guardians of the Maori version of the treaty, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, say it should form the constitutional foundation of New Zealand's political arrangements.

Northern leaders, such as Te Runanga o Ngati Hine's Pita Tipene, say the tribunal hearing is the most important constitutional inquiry in New Zealand's history.

A cornerstone argument is that because northern chiefs signed He Whakaputanga - the Declaration of Independence in 1835 - rangatiratanga, or sovereignty, wasn't given up when those same chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi five years later.

That the Crown had "assumed" sovereignty didn't make it right, and northern iwi whose ancestors signed both documents had a responsibility to see the claims through at the birthplace of the nation, Mr Tipene said.

"This is the one chance at Waitangi - where else would you take the Government to task over guarantees that Queen Victoria made in 1840?"

His views are backed by Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira, who said the treaty claim was unique in what it didn't talk about.

"Not to knock what everyone else is doing, but it talks not about bits of land; it doesn't talk about compensation; it's not about apologies. It's about the impact of the Declaration and Treaty on the people of Ngapuhi.

"No one's taken a claim which challenges the constitutional basis of this country - it's intellectually challenging and it's very cool."

The Maori Party is to complete by next year a constitutional review which was a condition of its support agreement with National, but while the tribunal process was outside this, the questions it would deliberate on were all part of the same picture, Mr Harawira said.

A total of 349 Northland claims have been registered with the tribunal. Hundreds more have not yet met statutory requirements for registration.

The March hearing will not deal with land loss or the Northern Wars. Those issues will be heard at later dates.