Protest may involve Cape road blockade

The majority of Te Hapua residents do not want their iwi to sign a deed of settlement of Treaty claims with the Crown tomorrow, says Te Hapua Ahi Kaa, and have called on the Ngati Kuri Trust Board not to do so.

They are also understood to be seeking a court injunction to halt the signing and planning to occupy a site adjacent to SH1 at Te Paki. They are expected to remain there, bolstered by reinforcements from Auckland, until tomorrow, and are believed to be considering blocking the road to the Cape.

The signing ceremony, with the Crown represented by Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Chris Finlayson, is scheduled to begin at 10am.

Ahi Kaa spokeswoman Hope Sucich said a peaceful protest was planned to show the "home people's" opposition to the deed of settlement, which she said fell short of the Waitangi Tribunal recommendations for Ngati Kuri in the 1997 Muriwhenua Land Report.

Ahi Kaa was also critical of the way the board had handled the settlement process, and the board's lack of transparency, noting that only 591, or 37 per cent, of the 1569 voting papers issued to registered iwi members to ratify or reject the proposed settlement had been returned. The board had claimed an approval rate of 87 per cent.

The board had claimed its actions were transparent because its decisions were accessible online but many people did not have computers, Ms Sucich said.

She added Te Hapua Ahi Kaa had not received the respect it deserved, or the opportunity to be fully consulted with regard to the deed of settlement, in particular its implications for Ngati Kuri, at the ratification hui at Te Hapua on November 30.

Board chairman Harry Burkhardt said yesterday he had been aware of "rumblings," but had not known of plans for protest action. He did not sound surprised.

"At every hui on Treaty settlement we have disaffected people poking the borax at us. It's part of the process," he said.

"There will be collateral damage with every Crown settlement until the Crown returns every bit of land to us."

The iwi had letters sent to the Crown in the 1880s asking for land to be returned and the board was the "tail-end Charlie" in the process.

Mr Burkhardt defended Ahi Kaa's right to hold to its views and to take what it considered to be appropriate action, but the board had taken a pragmatic view, supporting a political compact that was not about justice.