Hapu yearns for Crown partnership

By WAYNE THOMPSON

Ngati Whatua have hinted that they want more co-operative ventures with the Government - in areas such as health, education and the arts - as part of a compensation deal in their land claim over large parts of Auckland City.

Office of Treaty Settlements officials heard at the weekend the history of the grievances of the Ngati Whatua o Orakei Maori Trust Board, which says the Crown systematically stripped the hapu of 33,000ha of prime real estate.

That land - covering the urban areas of Auckland, North Shore and Waitakere Cities - has an estimated value today of $75 billion.

Ngati Whatua did not tell the officials what compensation they sought. But a hint that the board hankers to work in partnership with the Crown came from trust board chairman Sir Hugh Kawharu in an interview with the Herald yesterday.

He said the board was fixed on what happened in 1840 after Ngati Whatua chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi.

Chief Apihai Te Kawau invited Governor William Hobson to make his capital in Auckland, which the hapu imagined would bring opportunities such as trade, the new tool of literacy, and medicines effective against introduced diseases.

The Governor was offered 3000 acres (1215ha) of land, which forms the present-day central business district, and later a further 8000 acres (3240ha) from Epsom to Avondale and Pt Chevalier.

The land, about a third of Ngati Whatua's isthmus holdings, was a tuku rangatira - the traditional granting of access to lands and associated resources in return for an alliance.

Ngati Whatua and the Office of Treaty Settlements agree that buying and selling were foreign concepts for the hapu at that time because of limited contact with Europeans.

When Apihai Te Kawau received a nominal amount of money and goods for his people's land it was not seen as a single, irreversible and completed commercial transaction but as a token, a koha, of a newfound union.

The Maori system of land tenure and rights in land and the transfer of rights or interests in land was different from that of the English.

In 1845 Maori operated traditionally on the basis that the reciprocal giving of services was reaffirmed by goods exchanged as well as being tokens of alliance.

Ngati Whatua would not have realised until their land was lost that the English saw documents they had prepared as being of absolute transfer.

Sir Hugh said it was a perspective that stayed in the mind of Te Kawau, who at the farewell of Governor Sir George Grey some years later said: "We have developed a town here, together on our land."

Sir Hugh said these simple sentiments could be taken further into the 21st century.

As long as Ngati Whatua were identifiable to other Maori, there was an expectation of Ngati Whatua to fulfil the general obligations of the Treaty of Waitangi.

That could not be done without understanding and co-operation, primarily with the Crown.

For more than a decade Ngati Whatua had established a harmonious working relationship with the city councils of Auckland, North Shore and Waitakere.

This partnership extended to resource management issues, the Safer Auckland programme, Auckland arts and culture strategy, and memorandums of understanding with the tertiary institutions.

But, Sir Hugh said, regrettably there were no such partnerships with the Crown.

A partnership offering resources, attitude and systems would help Ngati Whatua to cope with the tens of thousands of Maori who found themselves in Ngati Whatua territory.

Since 1996 the greater Ngati Whatua iwi had bought health care services for 76,000 Maori - many times greater than the Ngati Whatua population of 10,000.

"That's an example of partnership," said Sir Hugh.

Governor Hobson and his people had been invited to share their skills and knowledge with Ngati Whatua.

In presenting the history of grievances, Sir Hugh said, Ngati Whatua were saying: "What do you make of this, partner?" without saying, "These are the dollars that could have been invested and could be returning us this much."

Settlements so far

Tainui (Waikato): $170 million

Ngai Tahu (South Island): $170 million

Commercial fisheries: $170 million;

Ngati Ruanui (Taranaki): $41 million

Te Uri o Hau (Kaipara): $15.6 million

Ngati Whakaue (Rotorua): $5.21 million

Ngati Turangitukua (near Turangi): $5 million

Pouakani (near Mangakino): $2.65 million

Ngati Rangiteaorere (Rotorua): $760,000

Haui (Northland): $715,682

Waimakuku (Hawkes Bay): $375,000

Te Maunga (Mt Maunganui): $129,032

Rotoma (Rotorua): $43,931

Waitomo: $1 million loan.

Awaiting legislation Ngati Tama (Taranaki): $14.5 million

Ngati Awa (Bay of Plenty): $42.39 million

Ngati Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty): $10.5 million.