Ngāpuhi’s new chair says it’s more likely than not the iwi will reach a Treaty settlement with the Crown within the next five years – a culmination of a complex, years-long process.
Mane Tahere, who became Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi O Ngāpuhi chair in late 2023, told Q+A there was momentum to get a deal done.
“That’s definitely the sense I get from talking to ministers, the Prime Minister, that there is a real drive to settle up Ngāpuhi,” he said.
“My number one question, though, is what is settlement? We as Ngāpuhi have to take the time to have a conversation.”
Tahere said he was also keeping in mind the Government could just “switch Ngāpuhi off… and we’ll go back and wait another five years”.
He said the lack of a Treaty settlement did have a “correlation and connection” to social deprivation experienced by some living in Northland.
“The deprivation has been there for a long time. Hundreds, 50 to 60-odd years.
“A settlement doesn’t relegate the responsibility of when we signed a partnership of Te Tiriti, and further Te Whakaputanga.
“It doesn’t relegate that to say, if we settle, we should be living in healthy homes and warm and a thriving economy. I think that’s part of the discourse of [the Crown] not holding up the partnership,” Tahere said.
He added Ngāpuhi “shall not be rushed into pushing our whānau to get there faster” because they needed to consider what they required to truly feel reconciled for issues like land loss or the loss of reo.
Tahere had his first formal meeting with the Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith this week.
Q+A asked Goldsmith for details of his meeting with Tahere. His response, in full: “I met with Ngāpuhi chair Mane Tahere this week.”
Finding a mandate
Goldsmith, shortly after his appointment to the Treaty Negotiations portfolio, indicated he was committed to settling the Ngāpuhi Treaty claim.
Ngāpuhi has been trying to reach a Treaty settlement for years. However, failed attempts to establish a mandate had made the process difficult.
Negotiations started in 2009. In 2014, the Crown recognised the Tūhoronuku Mandate – a board set up to represent the iwi in the process. It was led by Ngāpuhi Rūnanga chair Sonny Tau.
However, not all hapū felt those appointed to Tūhoronuku adequately represented them. Some also said they felt marginalised by the Crown-led process.
The Waitangi Tribunal subsequently found the Tūhoronuku Mandate undermined the rangatiratanga of hapū and, therefore, found its mandate was flawed.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Finlayson withdrew from negotiations with the iwi in 2017.
Amid the delay and the continued lack of support for a revised proposal, Ngāti Hine launched its own campaign for a separate Treaty settlement in 2019.
Tahere said he was working with Ngāti Hine on the next steps. He also committed to being more hapū-led in his chairing of Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi O Ngāpuhi.
“My whakapapa is te whānau Eparaima ki roto Ngāti Hine, within Ngāti Hine, and my Tahere side in Ngāpuhi,” he said.
“Through our histories, I’ve always been told and learnt that Ngāti Hine is a hapū o Ngāpuhi tūturu, and all that richness of Kawiti and Hone Heke, over time and battle…[I] expressed to the Ngāti Hine leadership that I want this take, this wedge, as a person with dual whakapapa, to be over in my reign, or my chairmanship.
“I’ve declared that. Whatever way and shape and form that takes, we will work through that and we will have further hui on that.”
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air