The meaning of a single word could shape the findings of a landmark inquiry into what Ngapuhi chiefs agreed to when they signed the Treaty of Waitangi more than 170 years ago.
On Thursday Crown and claimant lawyers summed up their arguments in stage one of Te Paparahi o Te Raki (the Northland Inquiry) at Moerewa's Otiria Marae, wrapping up five weeks and thousands of pages of evidence.
Stage one is examining what the chiefs and the Crown believed they were agreeing to, first in the 1835 Declaration of Independence, then in the Treaty five years later.
The Tribunal's findings will set the groundwork for hundreds of land claims in stage two, and if the judges side with Ngapuhi, who argue their ancestors never willingly gave up their sovereignty, it could also shake up New Zealand's constitutional foundations.
Crown counsel Andrew Irwin said the Crown agreed with most of what the claimants had said, but the key disagreement between the two sides lay in the meaning of the word "kawanatanga".
In the Maori version of the Treaty, the chiefs agreed to give the British Crown "kawanatanga" over New Zealand. The English version uses the word "sovereignty".
Even going by the Maori version, Mr Irwin said the chiefs gave their consent to a government over all people and all land, including Maori.
He agreed the English and Maori versions were different, but the Crown's position was that the Treaty was one document which had been translated into Maori.
Ngati Hine lawyer Mike Doogan, however, said the English and Maori versions of the Treaty were "fundamentally irreconcilable" on the question of sovereignty.
Ngapuhi never believed they were giving up sovereignty when they signed the Treaty, and modern New Zealand was built on the false assumption that they had.
Earlier in the week lawyer Moana Tuwhare said the chiefs had agreed to hand over some functions of government to the British Crown, but believed they would retain sovereignty over New Zealand in "a kind of dual jurisdiction".
Mr Sharrock called on the Tribunal to produce a report of its findings within six months, saying stage one of the Northland Inquiry was one of the most important hearings relating to New Zealand's constitution in a generation.
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