Waitangi tribunal: Urewera Maori deserve redress

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The Waitangi Tribunal says several injustices against the Urewera people from 1865 to 1872 need to be addressed by the Crown, even though the tribes did not sign the Treaty.

The tribunal on Thursday issued part one of its report into Treaty of Waitangi claims made by people from Te Urewera, including Tuhoe.

It noted that these tribes did not sign the Treaty of Waitangi - because they were not given a chance to do so - and were effectively independent until at least 1865.

In a letter to Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples which was also forwarded to media, tribunal presiding officer Patrick Savage noted the Crown agreed in 1840 that it undertook Treaty obligations to all Maori, whether or not they signed the Treaty.

"We uphold the claimants' view, however, that since their tipuna knew nothing of the Treaty, it could not, in any real sense, take effect to bind them to its terms."

The tribunal noted that the Crown confiscated Tuhoe land in eastern Bay of Plenty in the mid 1860s which was designed to punish other iwi involved in several killings, including that of missionary Carl Volkner in 1865.

"The Crown did not intend to punish Tuhoe, but it took their land anyway," Judge Savage's letter said.

Though the Crown had ways to return the land once it became aware some of it was Tuhoe's, it did not.

The land included about half of Tuhoe's most fertile land and its loss had serious long-term impacts on the iwi.

"After confiscation, and given that it was the first substantial contact that Tuhoe in particular had with the Crown, it is unsurprising that the Crown came to be regarded, almost immediately, as an enemy."

Tuhoe and Ngati Whare soon after aligned themselves with Te Kooti, whose followers staged guerilla raids on Poverty Bay, where several innocent non-combatants lost their lives.

The tribunal found the Crown was justified in launching a military operation into Te Urewera land to apprehend Te Kooti, but that Crown forces acted mercilessly, killing non-combatants intentionally and summarily executing some prisoners.

"The confiscation of land from Tuhoe and the conduct of the war were such that they cannot be justified as having been in accordance with the values of the time, for they were not," Judge Savage's letter said.

"These Crown actions have never been addressed or acknowledged and they must be, now."

The tribunal has not made any firm recommendations about what redress actions the Crown should take.

- NZPA