The Wairarapa ki Tararua report was released on Saturday 26 June 2010 at Te Ore Ore Marae, Masterton.[1] The three-volume report covers 17 claims filed by members of Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne hapū and other claimant groups.

The Tribunal panel consisted of Judge Carrie Wainwright (presiding), Professor Wharehuia Milroy, Dr Ranganui Walker, and Dame Margaret Bazley, and nine weeks of hearings were held between March 2004 and March 2005. The inquiry district, a covered the south-eastern corner of the North Island inland to the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges and northward the southern Hawke’s Bay.

In its report, the Tribunal found that Crown acts and omissions in this district constituted serious breaches of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. In the nineteenth century the Crown purchased too much Māori land too quickly and without regard to the inevitable plight of a Māori population left virtually landless in a part of the country where agricultural enterprise was the principal route to a good livelihood.

The Tribunal urged that Māori rights in and around Wairarapa Moana be recognised and given effect. In its view, the important and little-known history of Wairarapa Moana and Pouākani is a story in which all the credit for honour, reasonableness and restraint goes to the Māori actors, and little to either the representatives of the settler government of that time or indeed to the Wairarapa farmers who so resented Māori controlling the opening of the wetland to the sea.

The Tribunal considered that there is not enough muscle in the legislation governing the relationship between tangata whenua and local authorities, DOC, agencies involved in Māori heritage management, and the Ministry of Fisheries to enable Māori in the district to make their views count to an extent that is at all appropriate in Treaty terms. As a result, it is difficult for the district’s Māori population to exercise any meaningful influence over what goes on in their own locality.

The Tribunal was concerned that many important Māori heritage sites in the region are vulnerable. Some of the archaeological sites, especially in the south, are internationally significant, and it considered that the current regime for their recognition and protection is inadequate.

The Tribunal noted that it has not observed any Government response to its recommendations, first released in July 2009, for changes to the public works regime removing the legislative power to acquire Māori land compulsorily for public works.  It expressed the hope that this area of policy will soon get the attention it has so long been denied.

The Tribunal considered that Māori of this region have been sorely tested over a long period. Their small population and early colonisation left them struggling to assert their mana and identity in the face of a Pākehā majority that soon owned most of the land, made all of the decisions, and did not value Māori culture or language.

The Tribunal was concerned that te reo Māori has reached a very low ebb in this area. Māori language tuition is not easily accessible to most and is not even available to all Māori children, especially after early childhood. Improved access and more resources are necessary if the Crown is to make amends for the wrongs of the past.

The Tribunal recorded its strong impression of an improvement in the historically difficult relationship between the two tribes of this region, Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne, during the course of the inquiry. It expresses the hope that this will set the scene for a successful negotiated resolution of the Treaty breaches documented in its report.

This was to assist claimants and the Crown in negotiations concerning the return of the former Ōkautete School buildings situated near Homewood in the eastern Wairarapa. The Tribunal recommended that, having properly given back the Ōkautete School site to the local Māori community, the Crown should also give them the school buildings and schoolhouse located on the site. The advanced release also highlighted the panel’s broader finding that public works legislation should be changed to forbid the compulsory acquisition of Māori land in all but the most extreme situations. The Tribunal encouraged the Government to heed this finding in its review of aspects of public works procedures and legislation.

[1] Chapter 8, on public works takings, had previously been released in pre-publication format in July 2009.

The Wairarapa ki Tararua report was released on Saturday 26 June 2010 at Te Ore Ore Marae, Masterton.[1] The three-volume report covers 17 claims filed by members of Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne hapū and other claimant groups.

The Tribunal panel consisted of Judge Carrie Wainwright (presiding), Professor Wharehuia Milroy, Dr Ranganui Walker, and Dame Margaret Bazley, and nine weeks of hearings were held between March 2004 and March 2005. The inquiry district, a covered the south-eastern corner of the North Island inland to the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges and northward the southern Hawke’s Bay.

In its report, the Tribunal found that Crown acts and omissions in this district constituted serious breaches of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. In the nineteenth century the Crown purchased too much Māori land too quickly and without regard to the inevitable plight of a Māori population left virtually landless in a part of the country where agricultural enterprise was the principal route to a good livelihood.

The Tribunal urged that Māori rights in and around Wairarapa Moana be recognised and given effect. In its view, the important and little-known history of Wairarapa Moana and Pouākani is a story in which all the credit for honour, reasonableness and restraint goes to the Māori actors, and little to either the representatives of the settler government of that time or indeed to the Wairarapa farmers who so resented Māori controlling the opening of the wetland to the sea.

The Tribunal considered that there is not enough muscle in the legislation governing the relationship between tangata whenua and local authorities, DOC, agencies involved in Māori heritage management, and the Ministry of Fisheries to enable Māori in the district to make their views count to an extent that is at all appropriate in Treaty terms. As a result, it is difficult for the district’s Māori population to exercise any meaningful influence over what goes on in their own locality.

The Tribunal was concerned that many important Māori heritage sites in the region are vulnerable. Some of the archaeological sites, especially in the south, are internationally significant, and it considered that the current regime for their recognition and protection is inadequate.

The Tribunal noted that it has not observed any Government response to its recommendations, first released in July 2009, for changes to the public works regime removing the legislative power to acquire Māori land compulsorily for public works.  It expressed the hope that this area of policy will soon get the attention it has so long been denied.

The Tribunal considered that Māori of this region have been sorely tested over a long period. Their small population and early colonisation left them struggling to assert their mana and identity in the face of a Pākehā majority that soon owned most of the land, made all of the decisions, and did not value Māori culture or language.

The Tribunal was concerned that te reo Māori has reached a very low ebb in this area. Māori language tuition is not easily accessible to most and is not even available to all Māori children, especially after early childhood. Improved access and more resources are necessary if the Crown is to make amends for the wrongs of the past.

The Tribunal recorded its strong impression of an improvement in the historically difficult relationship between the two tribes of this region, Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne, during the course of the inquiry. It expresses the hope that this will set the scene for a successful negotiated resolution of the Treaty breaches documented in its report.

This was to assist claimants and the Crown in negotiations concerning the return of the former Ōkautete School buildings situated near Homewood in the eastern Wairarapa. The Tribunal recommended that, having properly given back the Ōkautete School site to the local Māori community, the Crown should also give them the school buildings and schoolhouse located on the site. The advanced release also highlighted the panel’s broader finding that public works legislation should be changed to forbid the compulsory acquisition of Māori land in all but the most extreme situations. The Tribunal encouraged the Government to heed this finding in its review of aspects of public works procedures and legislation.

[1] Chapter 8, on public works takings, had previously been released in pre-publication format in July 2009.

The Haane Manahi VC claim (Wai 893) was filed with the Waitangi Tribunal in 2000 by Arapeta Tahana, the chairperson of the Te Arawa Maori Trust Board. It concerns the downgrading of a recommendation for a Victoria Cross (the highest possible Commonwealth military award for bravery) to a Distinguished Conduct Medal for an act of bravery by Lance-Sergeant Haane Manahi, in action at Takrouna (Tunisia) in 1943. Te Arawa claim that their requests to restore the original VC recommendation have not been handled adequately by the New Zealand Government and that this failure constitutes a breach of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. They seek recommendations that the Crown consult with Te Arawa and present a fully researched and agreed proposal to the Queen for her consideration.

The Te Urewera Report addresses some 40 Treaty claims lodged between 1987 and 2003 by Māori from iwi and hapu living in the Te Urewera district. The inquiry district stretches inland from Ohope in the Bay of Plenty to just south of Lake Waikaremoana.

The Tribunal panel comprised Judge Patrick Savage (presiding), Ann Parsonson, Tuahine Northover, and Joanne Morris. The panel convened for 11 weeks between November 2003 and February 2005, with hearings held at Waimana, Waiohau, Ruatāhuna, Murupara, Te Whāiti, Waikaremoana, Rangiahua, Ruātoki, and Maungapōhatu.

The report was released in eight volumes.

Volume I begins by examining the tribal landscape of Te Urewera. It describes the hapu and iwi of the inquiry district, their origins and settlement of Te Urewera, and their development over generations leading up to substantial contact with Europeans in the 1860s. It goes on to discuss the Tuhoe ‘constitutional claim’, which concerns the Treaty implications regarding the fact that Tuhoe did not sign the Treaty of Waitangi. It then looks at the confiscation of a large tract of Maori land in the eastern Bay of Plenty and the military expeditions launched by the Crown into Te Urewera from 1869 to 1871, following the alliance of Tuhoe and Ngati Whare with the messianic leader Te Kooti. 

Volume II discusses the Crown’s military operations in the upper Wairoa and Waikaremoana region in 1865 and 1866 before detailing the events leading up to the Crown’s acquisition of over 178,000 acres of customary Māori land to the south east of Lake Waikaremoarana (the ‘four southern blocks’). The volume then examines the development of the council Te Whitu Tekau established by Tuhoe and Ngati Whate, which gave effect to their autonomy following the end of military conflict in the district in 1871, and the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896, from which the Crown granted Te Urewera Māori powers of self-government and collective tribal control of their lands.

Volume III reviews claims concerning the Native Land Court and the massive loss of land that took place in the blocks encircling the Urewera District Native Reserve (the ‘rim blocks’) before focusing on how Ngati Haka Patuheuheu lost ownership of their customary land at the Waiohau block through fraud. The volume then considers the claims of Te Whanau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Tuhoe, and Ngati Kahungunu regarding their respective blocks in the Tahora 2 lands.  

Volume IV looks at why the promise of the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 – which was to provide for Tuhoe self-government through a General Committee – was not fulfilled and whether the Crown was to blame for the demise of the reserve and the loss of much of the land it was supposed to protect. It also covers the Urewera Consolidation Scheme, which was designed to consolidate into a single vast block the many interests the Crown had purchased in the Urewera reserve and separate it from the remaining Maori lands.

Volume V examines the impacts that the Crown’s failure to properly implement the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 had on the mana motuhake (autonomy) and mana whenua of the people of Te Urewera. It then describes the painful history of the creation of Te Urewera National Park before discussing the circumstances leading up to the arrest of Tuhoe spiritual leader Rua Kenana Hepetipa.

Volume VI concerns two forms of Crown intervention in the economic opportunities available to the peoples of Te Urewera in the twentieth century: the channelling of State funds into Maori farming and the imposing of blanket restrictions on the logging of native timber on Maori land for the greater part of the period since the 1930s. It goes on to consider a number of grievances specific to the district before detailing the long-running dispute between the Crown and Maori regarding the ownership of Lake Waikaremoana.

Volume VII canvasses the massive environmental changes that have occurred in the district since the 1890s as well as considers a number of discrete claims in four broad categories: claims relating to public works, claims relating to rating, claims relating to cultural property, and claims relating to schools in the district.

Volume VIII concludes the report with the reality of everyday life for Maori in Te Urewera from the 1890s until the Tribunal hearings in the first decade of the twenty-first century and describes the socio-economic effects of the various Crown Treaty breaches identified in the report. The volume also includes the appendixes, glossary, and bibliography.

The Te Urewera Report addresses some 40 Treaty claims lodged between 1987 and 2003 by Māori from iwi and hapu living in the Te Urewera district. The inquiry district stretches inland from Ohope in the Bay of Plenty to just south of Lake Waikaremoana.

The Tribunal panel comprised Judge Patrick Savage (presiding), Ann Parsonson, Tuahine Northover, and Joanne Morris. The panel convened for 11 weeks between November 2003 and February 2005, with hearings held at Waimana, Waiohau, Ruatāhuna, Murupara, Te Whāiti, Waikaremoana, Rangiahua, Ruātoki, and Maungapōhatu.

The report was released in eight volumes.

Volume I begins by examining the tribal landscape of Te Urewera. It describes the hapu and iwi of the inquiry district, their origins and settlement of Te Urewera, and their development over generations leading up to substantial contact with Europeans in the 1860s. It goes on to discuss the Tuhoe ‘constitutional claim’, which concerns the Treaty implications regarding the fact that Tuhoe did not sign the Treaty of Waitangi. It then looks at the confiscation of a large tract of Maori land in the eastern Bay of Plenty and the military expeditions launched by the Crown into Te Urewera from 1869 to 1871, following the alliance of Tuhoe and Ngati Whare with the messianic leader Te Kooti. 

Volume II discusses the Crown’s military operations in the upper Wairoa and Waikaremoana region in 1865 and 1866 before detailing the events leading up to the Crown’s acquisition of over 178,000 acres of customary Māori land to the south east of Lake Waikaremoarana (the ‘four southern blocks’). The volume then examines the development of the council Te Whitu Tekau established by Tuhoe and Ngati Whate, which gave effect to their autonomy following the end of military conflict in the district in 1871, and the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896, from which the Crown granted Te Urewera Māori powers of self-government and collective tribal control of their lands.

Volume III reviews claims concerning the Native Land Court and the massive loss of land that took place in the blocks encircling the Urewera District Native Reserve (the ‘rim blocks’) before focusing on how Ngati Haka Patuheuheu lost ownership of their customary land at the Waiohau block through fraud. The volume then considers the claims of Te Whanau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Tuhoe, and Ngati Kahungunu regarding their respective blocks in the Tahora 2 lands.  

Volume IV looks at why the promise of the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 – which was to provide for Tuhoe self-government through a General Committee – was not fulfilled and whether the Crown was to blame for the demise of the reserve and the loss of much of the land it was supposed to protect. It also covers the Urewera Consolidation Scheme, which was designed to consolidate into a single vast block the many interests the Crown had purchased in the Urewera reserve and separate it from the remaining Maori lands.

Volume V examines the impacts that the Crown’s failure to properly implement the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 had on the mana motuhake (autonomy) and mana whenua of the people of Te Urewera. It then describes the painful history of the creation of Te Urewera National Park before discussing the circumstances leading up to the arrest of Tuhoe spiritual leader Rua Kenana Hepetipa.

Volume VI concerns two forms of Crown intervention in the economic opportunities available to the peoples of Te Urewera in the twentieth century: the channelling of State funds into Maori farming and the imposing of blanket restrictions on the logging of native timber on Maori land for the greater part of the period since the 1930s. It goes on to consider a number of grievances specific to the district before detailing the long-running dispute between the Crown and Maori regarding the ownership of Lake Waikaremoana.

Volume VII canvasses the massive environmental changes that have occurred in the district since the 1890s as well as considers a number of discrete claims in four broad categories: claims relating to public works, claims relating to rating, claims relating to cultural property, and claims relating to schools in the district.

Volume VIII concludes the report with the reality of everyday life for Maori in Te Urewera from the 1890s until the Tribunal hearings in the first decade of the twenty-first century and describes the socio-economic effects of the various Crown Treaty breaches identified in the report. The volume also includes the appendixes, glossary, and bibliography.

The Te Urewera Report addresses some 40 Treaty claims lodged between 1987 and 2003 by Māori from iwi and hapu living in the Te Urewera district. The inquiry district stretches inland from Ohope in the Bay of Plenty to just south of Lake Waikaremoana.

The Tribunal panel comprised Judge Patrick Savage (presiding), Ann Parsonson, Tuahine Northover, and Joanne Morris. The panel convened for 11 weeks between November 2003 and February 2005, with hearings held at Waimana, Waiohau, Ruatāhuna, Murupara, Te Whāiti, Waikaremoana, Rangiahua, Ruātoki, and Maungapōhatu.

The report was released in eight volumes.

Volume I begins by examining the tribal landscape of Te Urewera. It describes the hapu and iwi of the inquiry district, their origins and settlement of Te Urewera, and their development over generations leading up to substantial contact with Europeans in the 1860s. It goes on to discuss the Tuhoe ‘constitutional claim’, which concerns the Treaty implications regarding the fact that Tuhoe did not sign the Treaty of Waitangi. It then looks at the confiscation of a large tract of Maori land in the eastern Bay of Plenty and the military expeditions launched by the Crown into Te Urewera from 1869 to 1871, following the alliance of Tuhoe and Ngati Whare with the messianic leader Te Kooti. 

Volume II discusses the Crown’s military operations in the upper Wairoa and Waikaremoana region in 1865 and 1866 before detailing the events leading up to the Crown’s acquisition of over 178,000 acres of customary Māori land to the south east of Lake Waikaremoarana (the ‘four southern blocks’). The volume then examines the development of the council Te Whitu Tekau established by Tuhoe and Ngati Whate, which gave effect to their autonomy following the end of military conflict in the district in 1871, and the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896, from which the Crown granted Te Urewera Māori powers of self-government and collective tribal control of their lands.

Volume III reviews claims concerning the Native Land Court and the massive loss of land that took place in the blocks encircling the Urewera District Native Reserve (the ‘rim blocks’) before focusing on how Ngati Haka Patuheuheu lost ownership of their customary land at the Waiohau block through fraud. The volume then considers the claims of Te Whanau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Tuhoe, and Ngati Kahungunu regarding their respective blocks in the Tahora 2 lands.  

Volume IV looks at why the promise of the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 – which was to provide for Tuhoe self-government through a General Committee – was not fulfilled and whether the Crown was to blame for the demise of the reserve and the loss of much of the land it was supposed to protect. It also covers the Urewera Consolidation Scheme, which was designed to consolidate into a single vast block the many interests the Crown had purchased in the Urewera reserve and separate it from the remaining Maori lands.

Volume V examines the impacts that the Crown’s failure to properly implement the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 had on the mana motuhake (autonomy) and mana whenua of the people of Te Urewera. It then describes the painful history of the creation of Te Urewera National Park before discussing the circumstances leading up to the arrest of Tuhoe spiritual leader Rua Kenana Hepetipa.

Volume VI concerns two forms of Crown intervention in the economic opportunities available to the peoples of Te Urewera in the twentieth century: the channelling of State funds into Maori farming and the imposing of blanket restrictions on the logging of native timber on Maori land for the greater part of the period since the 1930s. It goes on to consider a number of grievances specific to the district before detailing the long-running dispute between the Crown and Maori regarding the ownership of Lake Waikaremoana.

Volume VII canvasses the massive environmental changes that have occurred in the district since the 1890s as well as considers a number of discrete claims in four broad categories: claims relating to public works, claims relating to rating, claims relating to cultural property, and claims relating to schools in the district.

Volume VIII concludes the report with the reality of everyday life for Maori in Te Urewera from the 1890s until the Tribunal hearings in the first decade of the twenty-first century and describes the socio-economic effects of the various Crown Treaty breaches identified in the report. The volume also includes the appendixes, glossary, and bibliography.

The Te Urewera Report addresses some 40 Treaty claims lodged between 1987 and 2003 by Māori from iwi and hapu living in the Te Urewera district. The inquiry district stretches inland from Ohope in the Bay of Plenty to just south of Lake Waikaremoana.

The Tribunal panel comprised Judge Patrick Savage (presiding), Ann Parsonson, Tuahine Northover, and Joanne Morris. The panel convened for 11 weeks between November 2003 and February 2005, with hearings held at Waimana, Waiohau, Ruatāhuna, Murupara, Te Whāiti, Waikaremoana, Rangiahua, Ruātoki, and Maungapōhatu.

The report was released in eight volumes.

Volume I begins by examining the tribal landscape of Te Urewera. It describes the hapu and iwi of the inquiry district, their origins and settlement of Te Urewera, and their development over generations leading up to substantial contact with Europeans in the 1860s. It goes on to discuss the Tuhoe ‘constitutional claim’, which concerns the Treaty implications regarding the fact that Tuhoe did not sign the Treaty of Waitangi. It then looks at the confiscation of a large tract of Maori land in the eastern Bay of Plenty and the military expeditions launched by the Crown into Te Urewera from 1869 to 1871, following the alliance of Tuhoe and Ngati Whare with the messianic leader Te Kooti. 

Volume II discusses the Crown’s military operations in the upper Wairoa and Waikaremoana region in 1865 and 1866 before detailing the events leading up to the Crown’s acquisition of over 178,000 acres of customary Māori land to the south east of Lake Waikaremoarana (the ‘four southern blocks’). The volume then examines the development of the council Te Whitu Tekau established by Tuhoe and Ngati Whate, which gave effect to their autonomy following the end of military conflict in the district in 1871, and the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896, from which the Crown granted Te Urewera Māori powers of self-government and collective tribal control of their lands.

Volume III reviews claims concerning the Native Land Court and the massive loss of land that took place in the blocks encircling the Urewera District Native Reserve (the ‘rim blocks’) before focusing on how Ngati Haka Patuheuheu lost ownership of their customary land at the Waiohau block through fraud. The volume then considers the claims of Te Whanau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Tuhoe, and Ngati Kahungunu regarding their respective blocks in the Tahora 2 lands.  

Volume IV looks at why the promise of the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 – which was to provide for Tuhoe self-government through a General Committee – was not fulfilled and whether the Crown was to blame for the demise of the reserve and the loss of much of the land it was supposed to protect. It also covers the Urewera Consolidation Scheme, which was designed to consolidate into a single vast block the many interests the Crown had purchased in the Urewera reserve and separate it from the remaining Maori lands.

Volume V examines the impacts that the Crown’s failure to properly implement the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 had on the mana motuhake (autonomy) and mana whenua of the people of Te Urewera. It then describes the painful history of the creation of Te Urewera National Park before discussing the circumstances leading up to the arrest of Tuhoe spiritual leader Rua Kenana Hepetipa.

Volume VI concerns two forms of Crown intervention in the economic opportunities available to the peoples of Te Urewera in the twentieth century: the channelling of State funds into Maori farming and the imposing of blanket restrictions on the logging of native timber on Maori land for the greater part of the period since the 1930s. It goes on to consider a number of grievances specific to the district before detailing the long-running dispute between the Crown and Maori regarding the ownership of Lake Waikaremoana.

Volume VII canvasses the massive environmental changes that have occurred in the district since the 1890s as well as considers a number of discrete claims in four broad categories: claims relating to public works, claims relating to rating, claims relating to cultural property, and claims relating to schools in the district.

Volume VIII concludes the report with the reality of everyday life for Maori in Te Urewera from the 1890s until the Tribunal hearings in the first decade of the twenty-first century and describes the socio-economic effects of the various Crown Treaty breaches identified in the report. The volume also includes the appendixes, glossary, and bibliography.

The Te Urewera Report addresses some 40 Treaty claims lodged between 1987 and 2003 by Māori from iwi and hapu living in the Te Urewera district. The inquiry district stretches inland from Ohope in the Bay of Plenty to just south of Lake Waikaremoana.

The Tribunal panel comprised Judge Patrick Savage (presiding), Ann Parsonson, Tuahine Northover, and Joanne Morris. The panel convened for 11 weeks between November 2003 and February 2005, with hearings held at Waimana, Waiohau, Ruatāhuna, Murupara, Te Whāiti, Waikaremoana, Rangiahua, Ruātoki, and Maungapōhatu.

The report was released in eight volumes.

Volume I begins by examining the tribal landscape of Te Urewera. It describes the hapu and iwi of the inquiry district, their origins and settlement of Te Urewera, and their development over generations leading up to substantial contact with Europeans in the 1860s. It goes on to discuss the Tuhoe ‘constitutional claim’, which concerns the Treaty implications regarding the fact that Tuhoe did not sign the Treaty of Waitangi. It then looks at the confiscation of a large tract of Maori land in the eastern Bay of Plenty and the military expeditions launched by the Crown into Te Urewera from 1869 to 1871, following the alliance of Tuhoe and Ngati Whare with the messianic leader Te Kooti. 

Volume II discusses the Crown’s military operations in the upper Wairoa and Waikaremoana region in 1865 and 1866 before detailing the events leading up to the Crown’s acquisition of over 178,000 acres of customary Māori land to the south east of Lake Waikaremoarana (the ‘four southern blocks’). The volume then examines the development of the council Te Whitu Tekau established by Tuhoe and Ngati Whate, which gave effect to their autonomy following the end of military conflict in the district in 1871, and the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896, from which the Crown granted Te Urewera Māori powers of self-government and collective tribal control of their lands.

Volume III reviews claims concerning the Native Land Court and the massive loss of land that took place in the blocks encircling the Urewera District Native Reserve (the ‘rim blocks’) before focusing on how Ngati Haka Patuheuheu lost ownership of their customary land at the Waiohau block through fraud. The volume then considers the claims of Te Whanau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Tuhoe, and Ngati Kahungunu regarding their respective blocks in the Tahora 2 lands.  

Volume IV looks at why the promise of the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 – which was to provide for Tuhoe self-government through a General Committee – was not fulfilled and whether the Crown was to blame for the demise of the reserve and the loss of much of the land it was supposed to protect. It also covers the Urewera Consolidation Scheme, which was designed to consolidate into a single vast block the many interests the Crown had purchased in the Urewera reserve and separate it from the remaining Maori lands.

Volume V examines the impacts that the Crown’s failure to properly implement the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 had on the mana motuhake (autonomy) and mana whenua of the people of Te Urewera. It then describes the painful history of the creation of Te Urewera National Park before discussing the circumstances leading up to the arrest of Tuhoe spiritual leader Rua Kenana Hepetipa.

Volume VI concerns two forms of Crown intervention in the economic opportunities available to the peoples of Te Urewera in the twentieth century: the channelling of State funds into Maori farming and the imposing of blanket restrictions on the logging of native timber on Maori land for the greater part of the period since the 1930s. It goes on to consider a number of grievances specific to the district before detailing the long-running dispute between the Crown and Maori regarding the ownership of Lake Waikaremoana.

Volume VII canvasses the massive environmental changes that have occurred in the district since the 1890s as well as considers a number of discrete claims in four broad categories: claims relating to public works, claims relating to rating, claims relating to cultural property, and claims relating to schools in the district.

Volume VIII concludes the report with the reality of everyday life for Maori in Te Urewera from the 1890s until the Tribunal hearings in the first decade of the twenty-first century and describes the socio-economic effects of the various Crown Treaty breaches identified in the report. The volume also includes the appendixes, glossary, and bibliography.

The Te Urewera Report addresses some 40 Treaty claims lodged between 1987 and 2003 by Māori from iwi and hapu living in the Te Urewera district. The inquiry district stretches inland from Ohope in the Bay of Plenty to just south of Lake Waikaremoana.

The Tribunal panel comprised Judge Patrick Savage (presiding), Ann Parsonson, Tuahine Northover, and Joanne Morris. The panel convened for 11 weeks between November 2003 and February 2005, with hearings held at Waimana, Waiohau, Ruatāhuna, Murupara, Te Whāiti, Waikaremoana, Rangiahua, Ruātoki, and Maungapōhatu.

The report was released in eight volumes.

Volume I begins by examining the tribal landscape of Te Urewera. It describes the hapu and iwi of the inquiry district, their origins and settlement of Te Urewera, and their development over generations leading up to substantial contact with Europeans in the 1860s. It goes on to discuss the Tuhoe ‘constitutional claim’, which concerns the Treaty implications regarding the fact that Tuhoe did not sign the Treaty of Waitangi. It then looks at the confiscation of a large tract of Maori land in the eastern Bay of Plenty and the military expeditions launched by the Crown into Te Urewera from 1869 to 1871, following the alliance of Tuhoe and Ngati Whare with the messianic leader Te Kooti. 

Volume II discusses the Crown’s military operations in the upper Wairoa and Waikaremoana region in 1865 and 1866 before detailing the events leading up to the Crown’s acquisition of over 178,000 acres of customary Māori land to the south east of Lake Waikaremoarana (the ‘four southern blocks’). The volume then examines the development of the council Te Whitu Tekau established by Tuhoe and Ngati Whate, which gave effect to their autonomy following the end of military conflict in the district in 1871, and the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896, from which the Crown granted Te Urewera Māori powers of self-government and collective tribal control of their lands.

Volume III reviews claims concerning the Native Land Court and the massive loss of land that took place in the blocks encircling the Urewera District Native Reserve (the ‘rim blocks’) before focusing on how Ngati Haka Patuheuheu lost ownership of their customary land at the Waiohau block through fraud. The volume then considers the claims of Te Whanau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Tuhoe, and Ngati Kahungunu regarding their respective blocks in the Tahora 2 lands.  

Volume IV looks at why the promise of the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 – which was to provide for Tuhoe self-government through a General Committee – was not fulfilled and whether the Crown was to blame for the demise of the reserve and the loss of much of the land it was supposed to protect. It also covers the Urewera Consolidation Scheme, which was designed to consolidate into a single vast block the many interests the Crown had purchased in the Urewera reserve and separate it from the remaining Maori lands.

Volume V examines the impacts that the Crown’s failure to properly implement the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 had on the mana motuhake (autonomy) and mana whenua of the people of Te Urewera. It then describes the painful history of the creation of Te Urewera National Park before discussing the circumstances leading up to the arrest of Tuhoe spiritual leader Rua Kenana Hepetipa.

Volume VI concerns two forms of Crown intervention in the economic opportunities available to the peoples of Te Urewera in the twentieth century: the channelling of State funds into Maori farming and the imposing of blanket restrictions on the logging of native timber on Maori land for the greater part of the period since the 1930s. It goes on to consider a number of grievances specific to the district before detailing the long-running dispute between the Crown and Maori regarding the ownership of Lake Waikaremoana.

Volume VII canvasses the massive environmental changes that have occurred in the district since the 1890s as well as considers a number of discrete claims in four broad categories: claims relating to public works, claims relating to rating, claims relating to cultural property, and claims relating to schools in the district.

Volume VIII concludes the report with the reality of everyday life for Maori in Te Urewera from the 1890s until the Tribunal hearings in the first decade of the twenty-first century and describes the socio-economic effects of the various Crown Treaty breaches identified in the report. The volume also includes the appendixes, glossary, and bibliography.