Mōkai Pātea Waitangi Claims Trust get mandate to negotiate Treaty claims

Mōkai Pātea Waitangi Claims Trust chairman Utiku Potaka wants solid support for the trust to continue toward negotiation. Photo / supplied

Just over 80 per cent of voters are willing to give the Mōkai Pātea Waitangi Claims Trust mandate to negotiate Treaty of Waitangi claims in the Taihape area.

After a series of hui Independent Electoral Services declared the result on July 19.

About 40 per cent of those registered voted.

The trust got the vote of 758 people, while 183 others opposed it. Trust chairman Utiku Potaka said that showed there was broad support, though he still wanted to bridge the gap between his trust and the Ngāti Hinemanu me Ngāti Paki Heritage Trust.

During the voting process registrations with the trust increased from about 2000 to more than 3500.

"That in itself was a great success."

But Potaka said the mandate has yet to be accepted by Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little and Te Arawhiti (the Office for Māori Crown Relations).

Before that happens the minister will meet the trust, hear from independent observers and receive another round of submissions on the trust's deed of mandate. Potaka is not sure how long this will take.

"There is one more hoop to jump through. These days the Crown is looking for a strong robust mandate, given the challenges they have had to some mandates."

When mandate is confirmed it could be time for the trust to celebrate, and appoint a negotiation team.

Potaka would like to bridge the gap between people who want the Ngāti Hinemanu group recognised as an iwi within the settlement, and their relations who say that iwi is Ngāi Te Ohuake, with Ngāti Hinemanu and Ngāti Paki as hapū.

For Richard Steedman, a descendant of Ngāi Te Ohuake rangatira Winiata Te Whaaro, the voting re-establishes Ngāi Te Ohuake as an iwi. Over the past few years it has been in the process of establishing its own rūnanga (council), chaired by Robert Martin.

Ngāi Te Ohuake people were once settled across the area northeast of Taihape township. But Te Whaaro and others lost much of their land in the late 1800s, because the Māori Land Court did not recognise Ngāi Te Ohuake as an iwi. Its people scattered to other iwi and hapū.

Steedman said the Crown owed them an apology.

Like Potaka, he hopes rifts between Taihape people will heal once the divisive Treaty claim process is over.

"I'm quite sure that once this does settle down we will all be back to how we used to be, one unified people," he said.

"We have just got to aim for the horizon."