Ngati Kuri back to the table

"Our experience was that the Crown was intransigent [in 2011], but we are now hopeful of finding a way through this impasse ..." - Harry Burkhardt, Ngati Kuri Trust Board chairman, pictured

The Ngati Kuri Trust Board is to re-enter negotiations with the Crown with the aim of settling outstanding Treaty of Waitangi grievances, and is withdrawing its application for an urgent hearing by the Waitangi Tribunal.

Trust board chairman Harry Burkhardt said yesterday that those decisions had been made following deep reflection and discussion by kaumatua and kuia of Nga Uri o Ngati Kuri.

The iwi had begun direct negotiations with the Crown in August 2008, he said, and significant progress had been made until the Crown opted to transfer title of Hikitama/Cape View Station and Nga Tama a Tautanui (Twin Pa sites) to neighbouring claimant Te Aupouri.

The Crown had earlier acknowledged that Ngati Kuri was the tangata whenua of these lands. Ngati Kuri were the direct descendants of the original inhabitants and the founding peoples of the northernmost peninsula of Aotearoa, Te Hiku o Te Ika.

"These Ngati Kuri ancestors preceded the arrival of the contemporary wave of migratory waka by some centuries, and therefore it was too hard for our people to accept the loss of these ancestral lands. We were faced with no alternative but to withdraw from negotiations in 2011," Mr Burkhardt added.

"Our experience was that the Crown was intransigent at that time, but we are now hopeful of finding a way through this impasse so we can advance the negotiations to a Deed of Settlement."

He described the withdrawal of the application for an urgent hearing by the Waitangi Tribunal as signalling an earnest return to good faith negotiations. He was not expecting the process to be easy, but now felt there was intent on both sides to find progress the claims.