Media Statement

Northland Iwi Ngātiwai Stands Alongside Tauranga Moana Iwi To Fight Crown-Assisted Hauraki Incursions 

Wednesday, 19 July 2017
For immediate release

Northern iwi Ngātiwai has had enough of the Crown supported incursions by the same collective of iwi from Hauraki that is attempting to push into Tauranga.

The iwi has decided it will be pushed no further and will stand and fight the Crown and the Hauraki attempts to colonise areas where the Hauraki iwi have no place.

Ngātiwai Trust Board Chairman Haydn Edmonds’ opinion is that an errant Government is being persuaded by the Chairman of the collection of Hauraki tribes, to trample on enduring customary rights and plunder other iwi.

“The Crown is attempting to diminish us at the bequest of this Hauraki Collective.  We won’t stand for it.”

Mr Edmonds said the Crown has effectively handed over sites of immense cultural significance on Aotea (Great Barrier Island) that carry tūpuna names like maunga Manaia, the eponymous ancestor of Ngātiwai, to iwi from Hauraki.

“It is my opinion this effectively a Crown assisted theft of Aotea and an act of aggression by the Crown towards Ngātiwai.”

“Also in areas at our southern boundary the Minister has decided to allow Hauraki-based iwi to have land and a voice on various central and local government organisations that makes no sense in terms of their history and location.  I believe Paul Majurey has pushed the Crown and found no resistance so he is taking whatever he can get before people wake up.”

He said the Crown is interfering in matters it has no real understanding of.  It is reengineering tribal authority by dishing out land and other redress in places where there is no basis for that redress.  It’s like a lolly scramble designed to please those it is currently in negotiations with.

“It is almost as if the Crown is creating a raupatu of its own.  Minister Finlayson is taking a customary position held by Ngātiwai for generations and giving it to others.  That is confiscation.”

“The whakapapa tells us what should be happening.  The presence of Majurey’s group Marutūahu in our rohe was extinguished a long time ago and well before 1840 when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed.  Those of our people who may have whakapapa in that direction but identify as Ngātiwai within our rohe are expressing their own concerns on social media.  There is no reason to bring in others to try and colonise our areas.”

He said he is joining with the Tauranga iwi and others to fight this land grab.

ENDS

Contacts:      Haydn Edmonds, Chairman Ngātiwai Trust Board
Phone:  09 430 0939
E-mail: haydn@Ngātiwai.iwi.nz

Barry Caldwell, Communications Advisor Ngātiwai Trust Board
Phone:  021 728 291
Email: barry.caldwell@Ngātiwai.iwi.nz

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