Waitangi Tribunal hearings resume in Foxton

Monday, 12 April 2021

The Ngāti Raukawa iwi confederation has resumed presenting their treaty claims to the Waitangi Tribunal at Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom multi-cultural centre in Foxton.

This is the fifth week of hearings for the Manawatū Ki Porirua District Inquiry, which is about the historical sale of the Rangitīkei-Manawatū block, which Ngāti Raukawa claims was not done legitimately.

Iwi and hapū from Himatangi and Foxton through to Ōtaki will present their submissions at the start of the week to one of the last big treaty claims in Aotearoa.

Involved in this hearing are Ngāti Turanga and Ngāti Te Au Ngāti Rakau from the Himatangi area.

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**

Much of the evidence given on Monday was placed under a rāhui.

The Shannon-based hapū of Ngāti Whakatere will present their case on Wednesday and Thursday. Ngāti Tukorehe and Te Mateawa will follow.

The last group comprises Ngā Hapū o Kereru from the Koputaroa area.

On Friday owners of the land-locked Koputara Block are presenting their claim.

They have only recently gained access to their block which they were locked out of for 120 years.

Members of five Ngāti Raukawa iwi or hapū (Ngāti Parewahawaha, Ngāti Turanga, Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Kikopiri and Ngāti Pareraukawa) are owners of the block.

They had battled for many years to get access to the block, which is land-locked by a strip of land about 10-metres wide running around the block.

Koputara was set aside as a reserve in the 1870s, but became land locked after the land around it was sold and access wasn’t provided.

The land included part of Lake Koputara and stream, and is approximately 140 hectares.

As part of the hearing, the tribunal visited the lake on Sunday.

This is the fifth of 12 designated hearings that started at Hato Paora College north of Feilding in 2020 and will progress to Horowhenua and Ōtaki.

The original claim, Wai 113, was lodged in 1989 by kaumātua Whata Karaka Davis, Ngārongo Iwikatea Nicholson, Te Maharanui Jacob and Pita Richardson. They have all since died.