Group Works To Resolve Foreshore Issue
The Government must delay its proposals for how it wants to resolve the foreshore and seabed issue until it has talked
with Iwi, Te Tau Ihu Iwi (Marlborough Sounds) said today.
A spokesperson for the group of Iwi, John Mitchell, said that the Government was not making enough attempts to speak
with Iwi groups about ways to resolve the foreshore issue and will leave itself open to future grievances if it acts
unilaterally.
"It is impossible to gauge the nature of such customary rights and interests in the foreshore and seabed without
discussion with the very people who hold those rights and interests," Dr Mitchell said. Te Tau Ihu Iwi had written to
the Solicitor General seeking a meeting with Government Ministers to discuss the issues, but had received no reply.
He said that the Iwi of Te Tau Ihu and the Fisheries Commission had established a working party to formulate principles
and proposals for resolving the issue. The aim is to develop answers to questions of ownership and customary rights, and
formulate a process by which the Government can talk with Maori. These will be put to Iwi at the next National Hui.
Dr Mitchell said that Te Tau Ihu Iwi, which took the Court of Appeal case with support from the Fisheries Commission,
will present some thoughts on this at the Commission's annual meeting on Wednesday 30 July.
"This joint work of Te Tau Ihu Iwi and the Fisheries Commission will be recommended to all Iwi as a principled and
reasonable approach for resolving the issue of Maori customary ownership of the foreshore and seabed."
"All New Zealanders must be able to know where they stand. Right now uncertainty reigns and will remain so until this
complex legal situation is clarified to the satisfaction of Maori and the Treaty partner - the Crown," Dr Mitchell said.
"Almost two hundred years ago, a deal was brokered. That deal has in many instances been broken by the Crown. It has the
opportunity today not to repeat the mistakes of the past with this issue."
Te Tau Ihu Iwi and the Fisheries Commission will be completing a discussion document shortly that will be forwarded to
Iwi and interested parties, but Dr Mitchell said other Iwi might have their own thoughts about the way forward. "We hope
that other Iwi will use this paper as a basis for forming their own ideas, so that principles common to all Iwi can be
confirmed at a National Hui at the end of August," he said.
Te Tau Ihu Iwi are planning to hold a National Hui on the foreshore and seabed at Omaka Marae in Blenheim in late
August.