KEY POINTS:
A Treaty of Waitangi claim on behalf of all gang women has been lodged by Aroha Trust, a group who were caught up in the gang scene in the 1970s.
It follows on from a Black Power claim lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal before the September 1 deadline
for historical claims which blames colonisation for the existence of gangs.
Trust member Pip Desmond, who is writing a book about its members, said the women's claim was similar and would look at Crown failures that had led to "cultural alienation, economic despair, impoverishment and abuse of Maori women and their whanau in gang environments".
Like the Black Power claim, it is not seeking any compensation. Instead, it views the process as a "truth and reconciliation" forum.
The Wellington-based trust was set up under Sir Robert Muldoon for women between the ages of 15 and 22. Over three years in the late 1970s, 30 took part in government-supported work schemes.
Most of the women had been in welfare homes or were street kids, had been abused, were children of parents who had moved to the city and so were dislocated from their roots, Ms Desmond said.
"The point of it is everyone needs to have a voice so that they can heal."
Commentators such as Black Power life member Denis O'Reilly credit the group with challenging attitudes towards gang rape - a gutsy and courageous stand in the 1970s.
He said what these claims pointed to was probably the beginning of the end for gangs - or at least for Black Power. Many members were getting older and saw how "pointless" being in a gang for criminal reasons was.
Many owned their past mistakes but wanted "Crown recognition" that gangs didn't spring out of nowhere, they were a result of social policies and colonisation, Mr O'Reilly said.
"People are already identifying their own failures. You start saying, 'Well, I f***** up here, I committed that crime or whatever but if I'm planning a future for my kids sorting out the systemic issues is one of the problems'."
But gang claims have drawn derision from MPs such as Labour Cabinet minister Shane Jones.
"Treaty claims belong with the iwi, and gang involvement in the claims will find no public sympathy.
"The only claim they should be making is that they have found more tinnie houses, more production houses for this dreadful drug P.
"Only when I see and hear of them closing those down in their own networks will they enjoy a sliver of sympathy from me."
