In June the Parihaka Papakainga Trust was granted $14 million from the Provincial Growth Fund.

It will be used to build a visitor centre and other infrastructure to cope with the increasing number of people coming to the historic site. Read more

The legislation replaced the controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act in 2011.

It allows Maori to gain legal recognition of their customary rights in the marine and coastal area, which includes the high tide mark on a beach and the seabed 12 nautical miles out.

Under the Act, Maori had until April 2017 to engage directly with the Crown, or apply to the high court to have their customary interests recognised under the law. Applicants could opt for both application pathways if they wished.

The Tribunal found the Act is in breach of the treaty because it:

• Failed to provide adequate and timely information about the Crown engagement pathway for applicants.
• Failed to put in place adequate policies to ensure that the high court pathway and the Crown engagement pathway could operate cohesively.
• Breached the Treaty of Waitangi by not funding all reasonable costs incurred by the applicant.
• Failed to actively support efforts to resolve overlapping interests in the marine and coastal area, enable timely access to funding for applicants in the Crown engagement pathway, and fund judicial reviews for Crown engagement applicants.

The Tribunal recommends that the Act's procedural and resourcing arrangements be amended to give effect to Treaty principles.

It asked the Crown to:

• Urgently address the lack of cohesion between the two application pathways.
• Consider the Legal Aid scheme to make applications affordable.
• Improve the Crown's support for applicants seeking to resolve overlapping interests.

The Tribunal has suggested that the Crown provides applicants with funding and administrative support, access to facilitators and mediators, and access to Tikanga-based resolution processes.

Part two of the Tribunal's inquiry will look into the substance of the Act itself.

Source

• rnz.co.nz
• forms.justice.govt.nz
• waateanews.com
• waateanews.com
• .waitangitribunal.govt.nz
• Image: waateanews.com

They have asked the government to purchase the disputed land.

Deacon Chris Sullivan, the Ihumatao Response Team leader says the Government needs to take the land back first.

"Because it was the Government back in 1963 that confiscated the land illegally from Maori there and caused the issue in the first place."

Sullivan says the Government has very few options.

"We see the Government has a responsibility to take action, and probably that involves putting up money."

The Commission has written a letter to the prime minister Jacinda Ardern and cabinet ministers, urging the government "to take steps in rectifying the grave injustice it committed in 1863 when it confiscated the land at Ihumatao."

They support the government's decision to invite all parties to come together to reach a long term solution for the use of the land.

The commission believes that participants in such a meeting must include the leaders of the land occupation, Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL).

They have also suggested that police be withdrawn as requested by the Maori Council: "to promote peace and goodwill."

They think Maori wardens would be much the more appropriate keepers it there is a need.

The peace and justice group has also written a letter to the mayor of Auckland, Phil Goff and councillors of the Auckland City Council encouraging them to play a positive role in achieving a just solution at Ihumatao.

Members of the commission are appointed by the bishop of Auckland.

They are selected from convenors of committees, the diocesan pastoral council representative, the council of priests representative and Maori representatives

Source

• aucklandcatholic.org.nz
• newshub.co.nz
• aucklandcatholic.org.nz
• aucklandcatholic.org.nz
• Image: newshub.co.nz

On Saturday, Brian and Hannah Tamaki and about 100 Destiny Church supporters arrived at Ihumatao.

Hannah Tamaki said she was there "supporting the people on the ground".

Mana Movement leader Hone Harawira arrived at the same time as the Tamakis.

Harawira and Tamaki seem to be better tuned to the "people on the ground" than mainstream New Zealand.

A revolution underway?

"Even though he arrived at Ihumatao with members of the Destiny Church which was odd to me, he's representing an important Maori constituency in doing so," says Christine Rose on the Daily Blog.

"Some people have been scathing of the popular support the Ihumatao protestors have received. There have been accusations of bandwagoning," she says.

Rose, however, suggests another explanation; Ihumatao is a unifying cause.

She says they are:

• frustrated with past injustices that are perpetuated today
• sick of the privilege of corporates
• angry at the ruination of shared heritage, of desecration for money
• sick of political complacency, of the conservatism of power

"Ihumatao is being described as a revolution, this era's Springbok Tour, our Bastion Point, the biggest Maori movement of our time," she says.

Who is listening?

In 2017 The Ihumatao protesters attended the Fletcher shareholders' meeting

They had obtained the right to attend by buying Fletcher shares.

They didn't get much airtime. Board chairman Sir Ralph Norris had the microphone one was using to ask questions turned off to silence her.

The shareholders' feeling towards the protesters was hostile.

Just shrug and forget it

"Aucklanders have got used to crass developments, and the steamrollering of the past, and feel powerless to stop it," says Rob stock writing on Stuff.

"Our tendency is to shrug and just push it from our minds.

"The truth is Fletcher is building at Ihumatao not because it is a good idea, but because it is convenient."

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• thedailyblog.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

The Anglican Bishop of Waiapu, the Right Reverend Andrew Hedge, said the church was complicit in handing over land given in trust by Maori.

He was speaking at a commemorative service held in St George's Church which sat on the scene of the battle fought on April 29, 1864.

The service began with a bell being tolled 60 times to commemorate the 60 Maori and Pakeha who lost their lives in the battle.

Hedge said the history would be revisited at the church's General Synod beginning this week.

The Synod would be asked to formally recognise how its predecessors were complicit in yielding land that had been held in trust and which now could not be recovered.

Hedge said the Synod was being asked that the church stands alongside the hapu in their endeavours for reconciliation.

Speaking prior to the service, local historian Buddy Mikaere said:

"On Sunday we will be remembering that battle but, more importantly, it's remembering it's that battle that's the birth of the city (Tauranga) as we know it.

After that battle, we had another battle at Te Ranga (Pyes Pa) and, after that, the Maori who fought at Te Ranga and Pukehinahina had their land confiscated.

"It's on that confiscated land that Tauranga is now built.

So we commemorate it because of that and what it meant to Maori people. It was the start of a real hard time for them."

Mikaere said Maori acts of kindness during those battles also deserved recognition.

"Of all the battles in New Zealand, Pukehinahina is up there because of the acts of chivalry and the way the Maori side behaved.

"People remember the humanity ... Maori crept around at night to give wounded soldiers water."

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

The claim centres on the land where the kura (school) is sited, which was granted to the Catholic Church by Governor George Grey in 1849.

A spokesperson for a group asking for an inquiry, Frank Rawiri, said: "We are at a crisis point with the future of the school."

"If the Wai 1385 claim is not settled the way we would like to settle it, we may as well say good-bye to Hato Petera."

"We want to get the land back that has been lost or at least some of it. This remains possible because some of the land is still owned by the Crown."

Rawiri was a member a trustee of Te Whanau 0 Hato Petera Trust from 1995 until he resigned this year.

He was chairman of the Trust from 2000 till 2010.

In June this year Rawiri presented a brief of evidence as part of an application for an urgent hearing in relation to the Crown's 2014 decision to recognise the Tuhoronuku Deed of Mandate.

The brief states that, "Our Treaty claim concerns the 376 acres awarded in trust by way of a Crown Grant to the Catholic Church in 1850, and the subsequent maladministration of that land.

Rawiri identified himself as representing Nga Tauira Tawhito o Hato Petera.

He said was chosen to represent Nga Tauira for their Treaty claim because he is an old boy and has been actively involved with the College since 1995.

Nga Tauira Tawhito is pan tribal organisation made up of affiliated Catholic Maori and other Maori from around the country who share an allegiance to Hato Petera College.

Nga Tauira has approximately 1200 members.

It formed and registered the Nga Tauira Tawhito o Hato Petera Trust Board as a charitable trust on 2 September 2002 for the purpose of acting on behalf of and advocating for the education of Nga Tauira.
Source

• Radio New Zealand
• The Waitangi Tribunal
• Image: www.waateanews.com