It is becoming a tedious activity that Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei, domiciled at our marae on the shores of the Waitematā, faces yet more iwi spokespeople trying to re-write history and impose themselves in our relatively small tribal rohe.
Yesterday, Paul Majurey, lawyer and negotiator for Thames based iwi Ngāti Maru, which is the engine room of the Marutuahu collective, penned yet another opinion last year making similar claims to those he has made before, just days after the motu mourned the passing of our revered leader Joe Hawke at our marae overlooking the CBD in the heart of Tāmaki Makaurau.
Leaders from across Te Ao Māori, which included Majurey’s former foe now ally, and recently re-appointed Tainui chair Tukoroirangi Morgan, along with land protectors, business and community leaders came to honour Uncle Joe and his legacy. Unsurprisingly Majurey did not come to pay his respects, however, true cultural leaders from the Marutuahu collective did, and for whom we respect in the purest of Maori terms.
Ngati Whatua's Ngarimu Blair says most of his hapu would not know the NZ Māori Council even existed. Photo / Dean Purcell
I was forced to respond to similar claims made by Majurey then. Now emboldened by the moves of Morgan who is now co-negotiator for a Tainui “outstanding claim”, used the pōwhiri for Te Matatini in February this year - hosted by Ngāti Whatua Orakei - to make a public grab for the whenua of my people.
Morgan followed up with his own opinion, making similar claims to those made by Majurey. We now have over 50 iwi claiming the CBD as a result because Morgan brings an entire waka confederation with him.
Thankfully, the Te Arawa waka confederation who also spoke at the Matatini pōwhiri and for whom many places in Auckland is named by including Ō-Kahu (matamomoe) Bay itself – made no such claims. We note that the Mātaatua and Aotea waka also made landfall in the region.
As always when I read the activities of lawyer Majurey, there is a desire to respond and correct his twists and slant on events and history that professional litigators are trained to do. I have done so in the past, on the marae, and in the various courts, including most recently the High Court.
Iwi leader and lawyer Paul Majurey. Photo / Dean Purcell
It is resource intensive, but nonetheless essential mahi for myself and many across my iwi.
I will not get into another response to all of the claims and attacks made by Majurey this time, I have done so before. I will continue to respond as I did to the most recent opinion from Morgan recently.
Making the same claims again and again does not make them true. Attempting to claim the higher ground from Thames or Hamilton is patent nonsense to even the most misguided map reader. While the complexity and range of criticisms may bewilder, most are able to read a map and understand basic geography.
Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei took the Crown to court around its settlement process and won declarations no other iwi has and we are more than satisfied with this. The Crown is on notice as is Marutuahu who have claimed all the way to Whangārei to Tauranga upsetting relationships on every border with the likes of Ngāti Wai and Ngāi Te Rangi to name but a few.
The Crown settlement process encourages and rewards a perverse yet pervasive human behaviour - greed - as the crumbs falling off the Crown table are squabbled over.
Tikanga Māori is bent and stories embellished or invented. In some cases, a few dozen people become rebirthed as hapū and iwi in the eyes of the Crown.
Meanwhile Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei must fend off all comers from our small rohe. In 1840 no one challenged our right to gift much of central Auckland to Governor Hobson and live freely across the shores of the Waitematā. No one wanted our whenua when it was ravaged by pollution and disease.
Today they are tripping over themselves lining up to stake a fresh claim. Morgan, however, is late to the feast over Auckland with his various hapū breaking ranks with the support of Majurey and receiving settlements in their own right.
Auckland has effectively already been paid for. Morgan however, like Majurey, are becoming expert at compensation negotiations with the Crown.
He has already led one of Waikato-Tainui’s previous settlements, the Waikato River claim, valued at 100s of millions. He has been a regular player in Crown negotiations for the 100s of millions in relativity payments the iwi has been awarded and continues to receive following the settlement of other iwi claims.
Whanaungatanga or relationships are important but clearly fluid.
We readily acknowledge other iwi as tangata whenua of wider Auckland. Te Kawerau a Maki in the west, Ngati Pāoa in the eastern seaboard and Te Waiohua in the south with ourselves in the centre. Auckland is no more complex than that nor any other region as any Māori would know.
The Crown and council however have been willingly hoodwinked or kowtowed, to believe literally anyone can be a “mana whenua” if they say it enough times.
When Morgan finished his actions at the pōwhiri on our whenua at Okahu Bay in February, he and his supporters jumped on the buses they came on and headed home, to their marae and base in Ngāruwāhia.
When Majurey’s Ngāti Maru whānau meet and return to their tribal lands they do so in at their marae in Thames.
For my people, we have but one home and base, and that is here in Tamaki Makaurau. We are home, and have nowhere else to go.
For this reason, our kaumātua, and our people are absolutely united in our resolve to fight these injustices and incursions and revisions of history, with all we have for as long as it takes.
Ngarimu Blair is the deputy chair of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust.
