Ngāti Maniapoto prepare for this weekend's celebrations. Photo / Whakaata Māori
Ngāti Maniapoto prepare for this weekend's celebrations. Photo / Whakaata Māori
100 Ngāti Maniapoto descendants attended a unique wānanga with government agencies to discuss development opportunities.
The Ngāti Maniapoto Marae Pact Trust ran the event, which was aimed at looking at opportunities for Maniapoto marae and whenua, as well as governance.
Trust chairman Rori Stafford said his people had dreams oftheir betterment, and he hoped the wānanga would make their dreams a reality.
Stafford was elated that the wānanga went ahead after three years of waiting due to Covid-19.
“We asked government agencies to come and meet with us, and we asked ‘How can you help us?’ Now we wait and listen to their presentations,” Stafford said.
Maniapoto kaumātua John Kaati hands the symbolic taiaha Maungārongo to Andrew Little. Photo / Vaimaila Leatinu'u
Seven agencies presented their services at the Te Kotahitanga marae in Ōtorohanga. Trust Waikato, Inland Revenue, Te Kooti Whenua Māori, Kāinga Ora, Internal Affairs, Te Puni Kokiri, and Community Waikato representatives all spoke.
Land issues including climate change were hot topics on the agenda, along with inflation and high living costs.
“Our families struggle to live week by week. The pressures of rising living costs are terrible, and we need these agencies to help us,” Stafford said.
For Te Kooti Whenua Māori, Maria Graham said she felt privileged to be welcomed to share how they could help whānau.
“I believe this is an important gathering where we can teach what the Māori Land Court is about, how to apply to us, and how to start a land trust,” she said.
The Maniapoto Marae Pact Trust (NMMPT) was set up in 1981 as a charitable trust aimed at improving the holistic wellbeing of Māori and those people living in the tribal area of Maniapoto.
Manu Barrett, one of the Maniapoto participants, was concerned about power prices in the King Country being disproportionately higher than the rest of the country, and he wanted to get some more visibility on this issue.
There was a buzz of excitement at the Te Kūiti train station as Maniapoto people awaited the charter train that would take them to Wellington to witness the third reading of the iwi's settlement claim. Photo / Vaimaila Leatinu'u
Sheree Maia Muraahi, another participant, wanted the ancestral house rebuilt.
“We are here to learn how to apply and prepare documents for government support,” she said.
Ngāti Maniapoto - Te Nehenehenui has completed its settlement deed package, which includes financial redress worth about $177 million. It provides new relationship agreements with Crown agencies, transferring 36 sites back to Maniapoto as cultural redress and the first right to buy Crown land in the future.
The settlement gives recognition by the Crown of the Maniapoto story, the Treaty breaches, and a formal apology for those breaches.
“Firstly, the land that will be returned, although small, is still being returned to us,” Stafford said.
These whānau will celebrate this weekend’s 150th anniversary of Te Tokanganui-ā-Noho marae in Te Kūiti, followed by a Crown apology from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as part of the Ngāti Maniapoto settlement.
