Crown and representatives meet on central North Island claims
Treaty Negotiations Minister Margaret Wilson will meet with a number of central North Island claimant tribes on Friday,
to begin dialogue on how Treaty claims in the region might be progressed.
The talks will be with representatives of the Te Arawa and Mataatua waka (canoes), which includes the large tribal
confederations of Tuwharetoa, Te Arawa and Tuhoe. The claims of these groups stretch from Taupo to the Bay of Plenty and
include large areas of Crown forest land.
The initiative follows recent progress with two central North Island groups – Ngati Awa and Ngati Tuwharetoa (Bay of
Plenty) - who have both initialled settlement agreements with the Crown, Margaret Wilson said.
“The Government is committed to continuing this progress on claims involving Crown forest land. There have been various
proposals from central North Island claimants on how to do this. I welcome this opportunity to sit down and identify
common ground and discuss how their Treaty claims might be progressed.”
Margaret Wilson said key issues to be considered were what groups wanted to be included in any negotiations, how they
would come together, who would represent them and how negotiations would relate to the Waitangi Tribunal inquiries in
the region that are planned or under way.
“These important issues need to be clarified before negotiations can start. Former Cabinet Minister David Caygill has
been engaged by the Crown to facilitate the discussions. The process will be inclusive and evolving, and there will be
no formal settlement negotiations until after claimant groups have agreed on negotiators for that purpose. “I plan to
take a report to Cabinet early next year summarising what has been learned from the discussions and setting out the
Crown’s next steps,” Margaret Wilson said.