Iwi granted urgent hearing

Several East Coast iwi have been granted an urgent hearing by the Waitangi Tribunal to challenge the mandate of Te Runanga o Ngati Porou to handle the entire East Coast claims settlement.

In a deal forged between the previous Labour-led government and the runanga, the Crown is working towards a Deed of Settlement by March 2010.

Subject to a ratification process, the Crown will give legal effect to the settlement and remove the jurisdiction of the tribunal to inquire further into claims before the East Coast inquiry.

The three traditional tribes claim that would extinguish their rights to have their own story told and to assert their rights to lands and resources before the Waitangi Tribunal,

It would cause them irreversible prejudice and create a whole new cycle of contemporary grievance against the Crown.

The Wai 2190 Urgent Inquiry is based on a question from the tribunal to the Crown as to how it is giving due recognition to the Te Aitanga a Hauiti, Ruawaipu and Ngati Uepohatu iwi in the East Coast Settlement Inquiry district, other than Ngati Porou and if not, why not.

Te Aitanga a Hauiti spokesman Tui Marino said that because Statistics New Zealand lumped the other three iwi in with Ngati Porou when it started recording iwi affiliation in the 1992 census, the runanga was able to capture the bulk of resources for itself.

Attempts to negotiate a better relationship between Te Aitanga a Hauiti and Te Runanga o Ngati Porou, the tribal authority for the iwi, have been unsuccessful.

Te Runanga o Ngati Porou chairman Api Mahuika has said the tribunal hearing is an affront and he will not be taking part in it.

In a letter to Treaty Settlements Minister Chris Finlayson, Dr Mahuika said the hearing made a mockery of the mandating process.

A three-day hearing is scheduled to start in Wellington on December 14.