Tuhoe hapu again protests over deal

A Tuhoe hapu will occupy the main road through Waiohau tomorrow to protest against the pending Tuhoe settlement with the Crown.

Ngati Haka Patuheuheu planned to show opposition to the deal negotiated between Te Kotahi a Tuhoe and the Crown before voting to ratify the settlement closes on Wednesday.

Claimants for Maungapohatu held the first demonstration in Murupara on Wednesday.

Ngati Haka Patuheuheu lead claimant Robert Pouwhare said the hapu had pulled out of Te Kotahi a Tuhoe four years ago and withdrawn their claim. He said the Government had refused to accept the withdrawal and was instead trying to "subsume" the hapu within a settlement it did not agree to.

The hapu opposed the Tuhoe Deed of Settlement; the proposed Post Settlement Governance Structure - Te Uru Taumatua, and the amalgamation of the Tuhoe Waikaremoana Trust Board and Tuhoe Fisheries within it; as well as iwi members being asked to surrender their individual voting rights.

"We are being asked to relinquish our rangatiratanga in Te Urewera and our right to obtain recompense for the grievous breaches of Te Tiriti by the Crown. Last century our people where defrauded of 7000 acres of their lands in the 'Waiohau Fraud', unlawfully evicted off our land at Te Houhi, and imprisoned on land in another tribal area in what Professor Judith Binney described as a concentration camp. They are trying to use our claims for their own benefit and provide nothing to those who have actually suffered at the hands of the Crown."

Mr Pouwhare said $15 million for a stadium in Taneatua was also a waste when so many of the tribe were living in abject poverty.

In 2009, protesters blocked the road for nearly 15 hours while protesting against the trust negotiating the Central North Island (CNI) Forests Iwi Collective settlement or Treelords deal, sparking a police standoff.

The Daily Post was unable to contact chief negotiator Tamati Kruger.