Tribe meeting to decide 'where to from here'

According to a landmark ruling, Ngapuhi never ceded sovereignty to the Crown.

A hui calling all Ngapuhi hapu together to discuss the tribe's future will probably include debate over the Treaty of Waitangi settlement mandate but that is not the main kaupapa for Saturday's gathering.

Ngapuhi leader Rihari Dargaville, who played a role in former negotiations, most notably the ground breaking Maori Fisheries settlement of 1992, said the call is for hapu to decide collectively "where to from here'.

That call follows the landmark Waitangi Tribunal's Wakaputanga Te Tiriti o Waitangi report finding that Ngapuhi did not sign away their sovereignty when they signed the Treaty.

Saturday's hui at Waitangi is the invitation for all hapu, or sub-tribes, of New Zealand Aotearoa's biggest iwi to determine the the extent and meaning of the Wakaputanga report. The debate about who within Ngapuhi, at hapu or runanga level, has the mandate to negotiate with the Crown over the tribe's settlement is not the main focus, Mr Dargaville said.

"Without a doubt, there will be matters raised that are constitutional and they need to be addressed, regardless of who has the mandate.

"We have reached this landmark and what we need to do, hapu to hapu, is look at what it is that Ngapuhi believe is in that report, what it means."

Mr Dargaville said the report is timely. Next Waitangi Day, February 6, will mark 175 years of debate and grievance over the sovereignty issue.

"I'm glad we've come out of grievance mode. Now we must consider how do we take this to the next level and move on collectively," he said.

Ngapuhi was different to most other iwi because the tribe was not founded under one eponymous ancestor, he said. However, there was no need for the iwi as a whole or its various hapu to feel under pressure by the Crown to settle before due process had been carried out.

The Act establishing the Treaty of Waitangi Tribunal was established in 1975. Since then 116 iwi have settled with the Crown.