Media release
Monday Nov 24
‘Children of the Mist’ to have their Day in Court
Some of the bloodiest chapters in New Zealand history will be revisited in hearings today (Eds: Monday Nov 24) as the
Waitangi Tribunal embarks on a major new inquiry.
Hearings will start this morning at Tataiahape Marae, in the eastern Bay of Plenty town of Waimana, on 33 Treaty claims.
Most claims are from Ngai Tuhoe, known as the ‘Children of the Mist’ whose land once extended from Opotiki, through the
Ureweras to Lake Waikaremoana and beyond.
The Tuhoe claims have been described as some of the worst injustices perpetrated during the colonial era, followed by
more than a century of blunders that failed to put matters right.
The iwi will have strong academic support for their case.
Judith Binney, Professor of History at the University of Auckland, will tell the Tribunal about her research into the
relationship between Urewera Maori and the Crown up till 1878.
The Government confiscated large tracts of the iwi’s most productive land as punishment for the murders of missionary
Karl Volkner and a secret military agent, James Fulloon, in 1865.
“Tuhoe were not involved in either death,” Professor Binney’s Tribunal submission says.
"The Government’s intention was to create military settlements, and to sell most of the potential farming land to
Europeans to recover its military costs."
Tuhoe’s leaders were confronted by “a scale of prejudice, aggressive government activities and extreme settler
self-interest that they could not deflect. These attitudes made their goal of partnership unachievable in the years that
followed.”
Professor Binney’s research was funded by the Crown Forestry Rental Trust, which helps research Treaty of Waitangi
claims involving Crown forestry land.
The Trust’s research projects manager, Leah Campbell, says 10 years of work has gone into preparing the Urewera claims.
“This is one of the most intensively researched projects ever to go to the Waitangi Tribunal,” she says. “We’ve worked
long and hard with the local iwi. The result is evidence of a very high standard.”
The research material includes detailed maps showing what happened to land that once belonged to Tuhoe and its
neighbours.
This week the four tribunal members will hear evidence about the land confiscations and why Compensation Court rejected
Tuhoe claims of serious injustice in 1867.
They will also hear about military invasions of the Ureweras in the 1860s and 70s and how these led to more land losses.
Twelve weeks of Tribunal hearings are programmed over the next 18 months. They will cover a wide range of Urewera claims
from the 1860s to the present day.
ENDS