Hapū tells of losing land to Crown deception
Monday, 9 November 2020
The Waitangi Tribunal has been welcomed to a Bulls Marae to hear the Ngāti Raukawa iwi confederations treaty claim.
The confederation’s claim involves 320,000 acres of land across Manawatū, Horowhenua, Rangitīkei and the Kāpiti Coast.
Ngāti Parewahawaha, which is part of the confederation, is part of the claim, in its case relating to the 1866 purchase of the Rangitīkei-Manawatū block, a giant 247,000-acre (99,957-hectrare) chunk of land, by Isaac Featherston, who was acting as chief land purchasing commissioner for the Government.
At the hearing, at the Parewahawaha Marae, yesterday, Robyn Richardson said Ngāti Parewahawaha were staunch opponents of the sale and there were three key ways Featherston defrauded her hapū in the sale.
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He belittled and minimised the official “title” and claims to the land of those opposed to the sale.
He forged the signature of Nepia Taratoa, a key leader of the opposition to the sale, on the sale document.
And Featherston used 730 Whanganui and 58 Ngāti Kahungunu and Te Atiawa members to obscure the fact the real owners of the land were not willing to sell.
“Dr Featherston’s conduct was deeply unethical, as he and other Crown agents deliberately undermind the traditional leadership structure of local hapū and iwi while threatening, implicitly, the same kind of confiscation of land that Ngāti Raukawa had witnessed against their allies and whanaunga (kin) in Taranaki.”
The hapū was provided meagre reserves, which soon proved inadequate to support all of Ngāti Parewahawaha.
The reserves were mainly along the Rangitīkei River. It lost large sections to a significant flood in 1897 that were never replaced.
Richardson said the Crown’s push to only recognise individuals as landowners broke down the traditional bonds of collective ownership and responsibility, and left the owners it did recognise poorer.
Over the years, many sold the land blocks given to the hapū as reserves in desperation. By 2017, none of the reserves remained.
Richardson said this further alienated the hapū from culturally important sites, including three urupa, or burial grounds, two of which are leased to farmers.
Richardson's voice hitched as she described the “desecration” of the urupa on McDonell Rd, west of Ōhakea.
She said Ngāti Parewahawaha had to ask permission from the farmers to visit their ancestors
“This is our urupa and they graze it [with cattle]. There’s only one grave site still visible.
“My dad could remember it being full of dozens of graves.”
The other urupa leased to farmers was in a similar state. The hapū was discussing how to approach getting a geotechnical survey to find the lost grave sites of their ancestors, and how to get Heritage NZ protection for all three urupa.
But that still wouldn’t deal with the crucial concern of free-access to the burial ground.
A delegation from Ngāti Manomano provided a unique perspective on how this alienation continued to affect iwi.
The hapū branched off from, but remained a part of, Ngāti Parewahawaha when the family of Kereama Te Ngako decided to build their own marae in the 1980s.
George Kereama said the whanaū wanted their own marae to help revitalise their languages and traditions in their own way.
“We become Māori on our lands, whenever we uphold the ways and traditions of our people.”
But the remaining pockets of land still owned by iwi members were all too small for a new marae.
What would once have been a relatively straightforward process became a decade-long struggle to acquire the necessary land, held up by obstructionists on the old Manawatū County Council who didn’t like the idea of a new marae, he said.
The hearing continues.