Ngati Kahungunu could hold the key to Hawke's Bay's future prosperity, an iwi leader says.
Several hundred members of iwi from Wairoa to Takapau Plain were returning home last night after the Crown signed an agreement to settle dozens of Treaty of Waitangi claims.
Two separate agreements in principle were signed at Parliament yesterday with He Toa Takitini, representatives of the people of Heretaunga-Tamatea, and Northern Hawke's Bay group Te Tira Whakaemi o Te Wairoa, with hopes settlement deeds will be completed by early next year.
Each settlement includes a cash offer of $100 million, and other recognition of loss and grievance, with a unique commitment also from the Crown to the people of Mihiroa Marae, near Hastings, to try to track down 56 taonga missing and believed stolen from the estate of the Pukepuke Tangiora Estate more than 50 years ago.
The agreements follow previous settlements with Raupunga and Mohaka-based Ngati Pahauwera and Tangoio-based Maungaharuru, and agreement with Napier-based Mana Ahuriri, leaving only an agreement with Wairarapa to be made, of six natural groupings of claims within Ngati Kahungunu's rohe stretching from north of Wairarapa to Cape Palliser.